FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 





Pope Benedict XV. 



Fifty Years in Yorkville 



OR 



Annals of the Parish 

OF 

St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Lawrence O'Toole 




PARISH HOUSE, 53 East 83d Street 

NEW YORK 

1917 






Jmprimt potnrt, 

A. J. Maas, S.J., 

Prap. Prov. Maryl., Neo Ebor. 

NtljU DbBtat 

Rev. Arthur J. Scanlan, S.T.D., 

Censor Librorum. 

Jtnpritttalttr, 

iSJohn Cardinal Farley, 

New York. 

New York, Dec. Uth, 1017. 



'off BL 
££ Qa, yt 



To the Pioneer Catholics of Yorkville, 
Who out of their Poverty 

STRUCTED THE LOVED Shrink 

OP St. Lawrence OToole 

And ro their more FORTUNATE Successors, 

Who, out of their larger MEANS, 

Erected and Adorned 

The imposing Temple 

of St. Ignatius Loyola 

These pages are dedicated by the 

Author. 

Patrick Joseph Dooley, S.J. 



VI FOREWORD 

ine Byrne, Miss Mary Rooney and Sisters Bernardine, 
Edward and Rita supplied many facts, and explana- 
tions which otherwise would have been obscure or un- 
intelligible. Mr. Daniel E. Reilly, a cousin of the first 
pastor and a witness of his ordination, supplied knowl- 
edge unattainable at any other source. The Very Rev- 
erend J. S. Lynch, D.D., in his "Page of Church 
History in N. Y., St. John's, Utica," kindly loaned by 
Mr. Meehan, supplied the main data for the sketch of 
Father Quarter. This was supplemented by the "Life 
of Bishop Quarter," Bishop Bayley's "History of the 
Catholic Church in New York," Clarke's "Lives of the 
Deceased Bishops of the United States," and by many 
vivid and cherished memories of those already quoted. 
Father Mulledy is made known to us by the catalogues 
of the Maryland Province, the Catholic Directory, the 
indefatigable researches of Mr. Wm. S. McLoughlin, 
the recollections of Rev. Edward I. Devitt, S.J., a 
former pupil, of Sister Bernardine, who was present at 
his death, and of Mrs. Quinn, who first saw him re- 
clothed in the Jesuit habit, and above all, to the vivid 
memory of Mr. Edward Long, a life long admirer. 
The Baptismal and Matrimonial registers have been 
of use in supplying facts and notes about the first three 
pastors, and in correcting defective memory. For it is 
not to be expected that any memory could place in their 
exact surroundings events that transpired fifty or sixty 
years ago. 

With the advent of the Jesuits our knowledge in- 
creases, and memories multiply and become more vivid, 
and can be checked by more numerous documents. We 
have all the registers, cash accounts, most of the early 



FOREWORD Vll 

Church Announcements. We have the Mission and 
Province Catalogues which give from year to year the 
habitat and occupations of all members of the Mission 
or Province. Biographical sketches of most of the Jesu- 
its here have been published after death in the Wood- 
stock Letters and many, too, in "Historical Records." 
Religious institutions within the limits of the parish 
have kindly furnished notes about their foundation 
and activities to Dr. Thomas McParlan, Chairman of 
the Historical Committee of the Jubilee Celebration. 
To him in a particular manner are due the thanks of 
the writer, as also to Rev. Henry Shandelle, S.J., Li- 
brarian of Georgetown College and to the staff of the 
Yorkville Branch of the Public Library for courtesies 
extended. 

The earlier Pastors have been noticed at greater 
length, because their lives are less known by the present 
generation ; but, for obvious reasons, little has been said 
about those who still survive. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter I Introduction 1 

Chapter II Organization 12 

Chapter III Construction 26 

Chapter IV G uasntuc noM (Fr. Quarter, continued) . 34 

Chapter V Consolidation 45 

Chapter VI Transition 65 

Chapter VII Expansion 77 

Chapter VIII Division 89 

Chapter IX Home Rule 109 

Chapter X Home Rule Complete .... 123 

Chapter XI The Old Order Passeth . . .140 

Chapter XII Ring in the New 153 

Chapter XIII The Baptistery 165 

Chapter XIV Mosaics 175 

Chapter XV Loyola School 185 

Chapter XVI The New Parochial School . .198 

Chapter XVII Gleanings 214 

Chapter XVIII The Boy Choir 230 

Chapter XIX Last Touches 245 

Chapter XX Finance 263 

Chapter XXI Education 275 

Chapter XXII Works of Mercy- 286 

Chapter XXIII Religious Growth 305 

Chapter XXIV The Jubilee Celebration . . .340 

Appendix Jesuit Staff, 1866-1916 . . . .351 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
Pope Benedict XV Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

John Cardinal Farley 1 

"Great White Way of Yorkville" 11 

Father Quarter 44 

Residence, Church and School 76 

Fathers Moylan and Gockeln 89 

Fathers Treanor and Fulton 122 

Father Merrick 135 

Fathers O'Connor and McCarthy 146 

New Church . . . 158 

Main Altar 161 

Choir and East Window 162 

Blessed Virgin's Altar 182 

Old Parochial School .202 

Father McKinnon 204 

Father Pardow 213 

Boy Choir 235 

Father Hearn 261 

Temporary Church and First School 275 

Day Nursery 301 

Sacred Heart Altar , 329 

Sanctuary Society . " 332 

Father Richards 339 

Apostolic Delegate Bonzano 343 

Jubilee Committee 350 




John Cardinal Farley 



CHAPTER I 

Introduction. 

When the City Hall was begun in 1803, the archi- 
tect saw fit to turn its aristocratic face to the south, 
to the sun and to the young lusty city of about 
70,000 inhabitants, while its plebeian back was shown 
to the cold north and the country. The time when 
the city should reach beyond City Hall Park seemed 
so remote, not to say improbable of advent, that the 
north side was constructed of inferior material and 
comparatively unadorned. But the city grew with a 
pace accelerated beyond the wildest dreams of seers in 
the beginning of the last century. Like sand dunes on 
the coast of Virginia or North Carolina moving inward 
over marsh or woodland and cultivated soil and blot- 
ting out in their resistless march all signs of previous 
conditions, the young city, the future mistress of the 
Western Hemisphere, moved northward. It soon sur- 
rounded the City Hall, crept beyond it, encroached on 
outlying villages. It overran the Bowery Lane first, 
the path leading up from the city to Dutch farms in 
the country beyond ; then, as if proud of its conquest, 
it first attacked and next absorbed the village of Green- 
wich. The city fathers soon waking up to the fact that 
their charge was bent on extending itself northward at 
a pace beyond their experience or their dreams, de- 
termined, if they could not check, at least to direct the 
town's growth. They resolved to avoid the bewildering 



2 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

tangle of streets in the old settlement, and appointed a 
commission to draw up a plan of city streets. The 
plan was adopted in 1811, and has been followed in the 
main on Manhattan Island. They had nothing to do 
with what lay beyond the Harlem. Their grand-chil- 
dren must attend to that, if the world should last so 
long. The natural increase of a healthy, contented and 
prosperous people, the completion of the Erie Canal 
that brought the teeming products of the West to the 
superb harbor of New York, growing commerce con- 
veyed in the famous American clipper-ships, the con- 
struction of two railroads to the North-West and the 
East calling for an army of laborers, poverty or politi- 
cal discontent in Europe inviting to liberty and eco- 
nomic independence and the frequent communication 
with the outside world — all added their quota to the 
70,000 clustered below the City Hall. 

By 1850 the population had grown to 515,000 (one 
can afford to omit the few odd hundreds), and was 
spread over the area south of Fifty-First Street be- 
tween the two rivers. The number of Catholics in 
1851 was close on to 200,000 and was growing rapidly 
in the last decade, and particularly in the last four 
years. Prior to 1785 there was no church for the ac- 
commodation of Catholics, the faithful being ministered 
to in private houses on the rare occasions on which a 
priest visited them from Philadelphia. After 1785 and 
up to 1809, when the old Cathedral parish of St. Pat- 
rick's was established, St. Peter's on Barclay St. suf- 
ficed for those of our faith in New York. The upward 
march of the population, Catholics included, may be 
seen from the sites of the early churches, Barclay St., 



INTRODUCTION 3 

St. Peter's, 1785; Mulberry St., St. Patrick's, 1809; 
Grand St., St. Mary's, 1826 ; Sixth Ave., St. Joseph's, 
1833; Twenty-Third St., St. Vincent de Paul, 1840; 
West Thirtieth St., St. John Baptist, 1841; East Fif- 
tieth St., St. John the Evangelist, 1841. Meantime 
the lower sections, the older sections, were becoming 
more crowded with worshipers, and new parishes had 
to be carved out of the old, that all might receive ade- 
quate spiritual attention. Thus the Transfiguration 
parish was established in 1827; St. Nicholas, Second 
St., in 1833; St. James, James St., near Bowery, in 
1837. After 1840, parishes were organized more and 
more rapidly, two in 1841, two in 1842, one in 1844, 
two in 1845, as many in 1847, and the same number in 
1848. Before 1830 there were but four churches for 
Catholics in Manhattan. In the next decade four more 
were added, and twelve new ones were organized be- 
tween 1840 and 1850. 

After the great fire of December, 1835, which de- 
stroyed nearly seven hundred houses below Wall St., 
and consumed about twenty millions in property, a 
feverish period of construction ensued for two years, 
but fell to the average of eight hundred and thirty- 
eight buildings erected each year during the subsequent 
eight annual periods. The fire of 1845 again accel- 
erated the rate of construction which rose to 1704 
buildings annually up to 1850. The city was growing 
by leaps and bounds, but necessarily in a northern di- 
rection, and preparations began to be made to accom- 
modate the expected population elsewhere and in York- 
ville. 

Yorkville is now more of a reminiscence than a geo- 



4 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

graphical entity. One motoring up Fifth Avenue or 
riding in a trolley car on Madison and Lexington 
Avenues, one thundering in the elevated through Third 
and Second Avenues, especially one shooting through 
the tunnel in Park Avenue, will fail to notice any 
break in the continuity of the streets, or any deviation 
from the north and south direction of the avenues, or 
the east and west trend of the numbered streets. 
Whatever seams and irregularities once existed, as in 
Chelsea or Manhattanville, have long since been elim- 
inated in the northward growth of the city by the 
American love for, and the general convenience of the 
checker-board delimitation of streets. But those whose 
memories go back sixty or seventy years, and some 
such are still amongst us, recall far different scenes. 
There was no Central Park to neighbor us and give us 
dignity on the west, no trolley or elevated cars on our 
avenues, there was an open cut for the Harlem railroad 
running through Fourth Avenue to 86th St., from 
Madison Square, an eyesore to such as dreamed dreams 
of our beautiful and noble Park Avenue. There were 
no apartment houses such as we see now towering their 
thirteen stories into the sky. There were many out- 
crops of granite gneiss, scaling places and battle scenes 
of boyhood. There were patches of cultivated soil, 
strips of virgin forest here and there, and goats every- 
where. 

Of the two great arteries of travel connecting Old 
New York with the outer world, the Albany Post Road 
and the Boston Post Road, the latter passed through 
Yorkville and contributed to its creation. Along the 
tedious ways, stops for food and rest and change of 



INTRODUCTION 5 

horses were necessary. Inns, stables, smithies, homes 
for hostlers and drivers of coaches sprang up at inter- 
vals, villages grew up by the wayside, and villages de- 
veloped into towns and later into cities. New Haven, 
Hartford, Springfield and Worcester are some among 
the many cities generated from the hamlets along the 
Post Road of 1685, in consequence of Governor Don- 
gan's reorganized postal service. 

Yorkville was too near the terminus to grow into a 
large city. It was clearly destined to be absorbed into 
New York, though no one prior to the Revolution 
could harbor such a wild thought as the growth of the 
old town below Wall Street into the country for the 
distance of six miles. Even so late as 1850, the vil- 
lage was separated from the outskirts of the city by 
a distance of a mile and a half. It kept its own iden- 
tity, built its houses according to its own sweet will, on 
hills or in hollows, orientated according to the whim 
of the builder or owner, and regardless of the plans 
of the City Fathers of 1811, who devised the present 
direction of the streets, and sometimes regardless of the 
rights of the owners of the land, owners blissfully ig- 
norant of the future value of their estates. 

The name would suggest that the settlers or squat- 
ters were of English rather than Dutch blood. The 
Dutch naturally preferred the fens and lowlands about 
the old fort or the marshes about the Harlem River, 
and in course of time spread northwards and south- 
\v ards from these points. The rocky midland was for- 
eign to the experience of the Hollander of the Dikes. 
The hamlet might have called itself Stringtown on the 
Pike, if a pike had existed, or by any other name, and 



6 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

no one would have quarreled with it on its choice. 
But as New Amsterdam gave place to New York after 
the English Conquest, so the villagers, proud of their 
close connectiton with the great city, wished to be 
joined with it in name also, and pitched on the title 
of Yorkville for their home. Were they dazzled by 
the glory of the Duke of York, later James II, the 
friend and patron of Dongan, the first Governor of 
the colony? It is hard to say, — for there is no ac- 
counting for taste. Yorktown would have suited them 
better; but Yorktown had been preempted by the pio- 
neers of Virginia, so perforce Yorkville became the 
name of the village on the Post Road between the 
Dutch settlements of Harlem and New Amsterdam. 

The Post Road which helped to build up Yorkville 
as it helped to build many more pretentious villages, 
towns and cities, following in its long course Indian 
trails throughout most of its distance, emphasized and 
broadened these by heavier and more frequent traffic. 
It began at the City Hall, thence by way of Chatham 
Street to the Bowery. This was originally a lane lead- 
ing to the farms or boweries of the Dutch settlers in 
the country. The chief one, that of Peter Stuyvesant, 
lay between Sixth and Seventeenth Streets, from 
Fourth Avenue to the East River. The Lane and the 
Post Road met Broadway at Fourteenth Street and 
merged with it up to Twenty-Third Street, then swerv- 
ing to the East River, it zigzagged across Third Ave- 
nue, sometimes going east of Second Avenue and at 
other times going west to Fourth Avenue, to avoid hills 
or swamps in its northern progress, but in the main 
keeping to the line of Third Avenue. It entered York- 



INTRODUCTION 7 

ville at Eighty-Third Street and Third Avenue. Haz- 
ard's Road House at Eighty-Fourth Street was a 
famous station which saw many an adventurous trav- 
eller in the early days, and many a guest in later days 
when an excursion into the country behind a fast team 
was an agreeable diversion to the leisured classes of 
New York. When Third Avenue was cut through 
from Twenty-Eighth Street to Harlem in 1835, the 
Post Road disappeared from view, but Yorkville on 
the line of increasing travel became more important. 
There was a good macadamized road straight down to 
the city and fairly well graded, the old speedway of 
the East Side. Villas or country houses dotted the 
shore of the East River, three of which became famous. 
A lane running east from Third Avenue near Eighty- 
Third Street gave access to these. Following this lane 
and turning north, one came to the Villa of Commodore 
Isaac Chauncey on the south side of Eighty-Fifth 
Street, between Avenues A and B. Beyond him lay 
that of John Jacob Astor, on the south side of Eighty- 
Eighth Street, between Avenues A and B. Here 
Washington Irving was a frequent visitor. Here he 
wrote his Astoria in memory of his host. The next 
and the most famous of all was the Villa of Archibald 
Gracie, a renowned entertainer. Among his guests 
he counted Tom Moore, Louis Philip, later king of 
France, Washington Irving, Josiah Adams and John 
Quincy Adams. His place overlooked the water east 
of Avenue B and north of Eighty-Eighth Street. 1 To 
the south of Eighty-Third Street there were important 
properties belonging to Livingston, Riker, Ireland, Nel- 
son, Jones. The property of the Jones family began 

iRufus Rockwell Wilson, II, 295. 



8 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

about Seventy-First Street at Dead Man's Rock and 
was in part virgin forest, an excursion point from the 
city in the early years of the last century and a favorite 
picnic ground for our people in the sixties. 

On the west side of Yorkville even as late as 1865 
there were not a dozen houses along Fifth Avenue from 
Sixtieth to One Hundred and Tenth Street. The most 
valuable property was that purchased by Robert Lenox 
and willed to his son James in 1829 with the strongest 
recommendations that it should be kept intact, because 
the deviser hoped that "at no distant day it may be the 
site of a village." The purchase price was about seven 
thousand dollars, more than it was worth at the time ; 
but the investment proved a fortunate one for the son 
and heir, James Lenox. Part of the property was sold 
for six millions. It extended from Sixty-Eighth Street 
to Seventy-Fourth Street, between Fourth and Fifth 
Avenues. He founded the Presbyterian Hospital and 
the Lenox Library. These facts are taken from Wil- 
son's New York, Old and New. On page 290 he tells 
us : — "Sixty years ago there was a road-house hard 
by the fifth mile-stone on the Boston Post Road, and 
north of that point the traveller passed only scattered 
houses, open fields and bits of woodland until he came 
to the village of Yorkville, a straggling hamlet which 
reached from Eighty-Third to Eighty-Ninth Streets, 
and from Fourth Avenue to Second Avenue. Old men 
who knew Yorkville in their boyhood say that it was 
never a pretty place, but add that the view toward the 
East River was superb. The Hell Gate ferry was at 
the foot of Eighty-Sixth Street, opposite the northern 
end of Blackwell's Island." This ferry, a convenience 



INTRODUCTION 9 

to the villagers, doubtless helped to swell their numbers, 
as the location was elevated and the land extremely 
cheap up to fifty years ago. 

Two other causes leading to the peopling of York- 
ville were, first, the construction of the Harlem Rail- 
road, which was chartered in 1831, reached Fourteenth 
Street in 1832, was finished to Thirty-Second Street 
in 1833, and in the following year completed to York- 
ville, where a station was opened at Eighty-Sixth 
Street before the road plunged into a tunnel to avoid 
the steep incline to Nlinety-Third Street, and dropped 
by an easy grade to the flats of Harlem. This road 
might be called the first means of rapid transit to the 
city. Commuters were induced to settle here, while 
some of the constructors of the road remained. The 
second cause operating to people Yorkville to greater 
growth was the excavation of the Croton Reservoir 
west of the Metropolitan Museum. A small army of 
men was required for the work, and a larger army still 
for the greater reservoir to the north of the first men- 
tioned. Each left its residue of navvies where they had 
homes during the completion of these works. In this 
manner population was added to the village of York- 
ville on the Boston Post Road. When the running 
time between Boston and New York was cut down to 
three or four days and there were three trips a week 
each way, and a line of twenty omnibuses (managed by 
Murphy and Kavanagh) ran between Harlem and Try- 
on Row via Third Avenue, Bowery and Chatham 
Street, Yorkville became comparatively a busy place, 
with Hazard's Road House as the chief centre of at- 
traction for visitors and residents alike. 



10 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

A last word about the surface. The present aspect 
of the Avenues, even though the hills have been leveled 
off and the hollow places filled up, in places to a con- 
siderable height, shows a considerable variation in 
level. In general there was a slope southward and east- 
ward from Ninety-Fifth Street in the present Park 
towards Seventy-Fifth Street and the East River. Such 
streams as existed ran into the latter. There was one 
rill cutting the high East River bank at Ninetieth 
Street, and another at Eightieth Street. Two stream- 
lets, one rising about Eighty-Ninth Street and Eighth 
Avenue, flowing eastward and southeast across Fourth 
Avenue near Seventy-Sixth Street, the other having 
its origin near Ninth Avenue and Eighty-Fifth Street, 
flowed south and then east, mingled their wavelets at 
Seventy-Fifth Street near Third Avenue. The united 
streamlets formed the Saw Kill and emptied into the 
East River near Seventy-Fifth Street. 

In the process of grading and filling up the streets 
and avenues that crossed the course of these streamlets, 
the sewers at places crossed above the level of the 
water. The culverts constructed for the drainage of 
the low ground were imperfectly made, with the result 
that banks fell in, choking the drains, and the water 
overflowed the surrounding blocks to the depth of six 
and ten feet. Here was an opportunity for diversion, 
exercise and amusement which the boys of the period 
did not neglect. Aquatic feats of diving, splashing, 
ducking, swimming were numerous in the long sum- 
mer days over the bed of Seventy- Fi fth Street, between 
Third Avenue and the Park. French Peter, a character 
who played Robinson Crusoe on an island in the sub- 



INTRODUCTION 



11 



merged district, was often the victim of their youthful 
pranks, as some can recall to the present day. York- 
ville had a bad reputation owing to malaria, chills and 
other kindred ailments due to the saturated condition 
of the soil. Many died of these ills, amongst others 
the contractor whose careless work caused the over- 
flow. At great expense and by laying down 8,000 feet 
of pipe for under drainage, the water was removed 
and the soil made dry by 1871 ; and now Yorkville is 
amongst the healthiest places in the city. 




"Great White Way of Yorkville" 



CHAPTER II 
Organization. 

The growing importance of Yorkville was recog- 
nized by the municipal and Catholic authorities. In 
1850 it was incorporated in the new Nineteenth Ward, 
extending between the rivers from Fortieth to Eighty- 
Sixth Street and was represented in the First Chamber 
of the city government by William Dooley. Educa- 
tional needs were for the moment satisfied by the estab- 
lishment of a Ward School on Eighty-Fourth Street, 
near Fourth Avenue, with two teachers, Mary J. Don- 
nell and Catherine Geary, to attend to budding genius 
of the locality. Prior to 1850 no water mains had been 
laid in the streets above Fortieth Street ; but from this 
year on feverish activity was displayed in providing 
present and future population with Croton water. 
Long after the Croton Aqueduct was constructed, and 
an abundant supply was at hand, many of the residents 
in the older sections of the city continued to draw on 
wells and springs for washing and for drinking pur- 
poses. Yorkville, therefore, was not apt to utter any 
serious protests on the score of neglect in the matter 
of water supply. 

The Catholics formed a considerable portion of the 
population of the district, attracted by employment 
necessary for a growing neighborhood. The section 
between Eighty-First Street and Eighty-Fifth Street, 
from Fourth Avenue to Fifth Avenue was called Irish- 

12 



ORGANIZATION 13 

town, from the nationality of most of the squatters; 
and it is safe to say the majority of these were Catholic, 
and conscientious, as far as possible, in the discharge 
of their religious duties. Many were refugees from 
the scourge of famine which had made Ireland desolate 
in the preceding years. They were amongst the most 
faithful of the exiles who had before that time come to 
this country, or who have immigrated since. The com- 
paratively easy circumstances in which they lived in 
their new home made them liberal givers for the con- 
struction of churches and schools, and they deemed 
themselves honored in being able to forward the in- 
terests of God. They were a generation of church 
builders, and their grandchildren have reason to be 
grateful to them for lessons of pure faith and loyalty 
to God, as well as for many of the churches which are 
still in active use and which are a credit to the epoch 
in which they were planned. 

Men, who at home thought little of walking three and 
four Irish miles in all kinds of weather, would certainly 
not complain at being obliged to walk as far as St. 
Paul's on One Hundred and Seventeenth Street and 
still less to St. John's on Fiftieth Street, however much 
we of a later generation might be inclined to grumble 
at such a trip every week ; but when the bitter cold of 
winter covered the country roads with snow or sleet, 
or the pitiless rays of a summer sun beat down on the 
heads of their wives and children, they were forced 
to turn their minds to the task of procuring a place 
of worship nearer home. The necessity was all the 
more urgent as these two churches were not any too 
large for their own congregation and the natural in- 



14 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

crease to be expected from experience in other parts 
of the city. 

The project of securing a church and a Priest of 
their own was without doubt long entertained and dis- 
cussed by the principal men of the Village before any 
definite action was taken; but the heat of the coming 
summer of 1851 stirred them to action. Accordingly 
some of the well-to-do men waited on Archbishop 
Hughes and laid their needs and prospects before him. 
He was in perfect sympathy with his subjects in York- 
ville, yet the difficulties in the way seemed insuperable. 
Priests were scarce and the locality was peopled mainly 
by the poor. He could trust to God for the Priest, but, 
humanly speaking, he could scarcely trust to man for 
the money necessary to erect a new church in a poor 
village. Hoping that God would aid with the money 
too, but to test the earnestness of the committee and 
their generosity, he is reported to have said : "If you 
give me a thousand dollars I will give you a Priest." 
Priest and money seemed equally far off, yet four mem- 
bers of the committee, Mr. McCabe, a haberdasher on 
Eighty-Sixth Street and Fourth Avenue, Mr. Mc- 
Carthy, a member of the Board of Education, who lived 
on Eighty-Second Street and Third Avenue, Mr. 
Lennon, who kept a bakery on Third Avenue, and Mr. 
McManus, keeper of the Road House on Eighty-Sixth 
Street and Fourth Avenue, returned home well pleased 
with their mission. They went to work with a will, 
and soon had the thousand dollars for the Archbishop, 
Lennon alone contributing one hundred dollars. He 
did a thriving business, serving customers as far north 
as Manhattanville, and appears to have been the monied 



ORGANIZATION 15 

man of the Catholic residents, the Cushman of sixty- 
years ago. 

With good cash on hand they were authorized to 
raise funds and purchase lots at a suitable place for 
the erection of a church and a school. With impartial 
eye they selected a site midway between the village on 
the east side and Irishtown on the west, a high spot 
and a dry spot, and purchased four lots for one thou- 
sand dollars in the very centre of the existing popula- 
tion at Eighty-Fourth Street near Fourth Avenue. 
The open cut of the Harlem Railroad divided the ter- 
ritory; but there were wooden bridges spanning the 
road from Eighty-First to Eighty-Sixth Street. Ac- 
cess, therefore, was easy for all worshipers, and the 
distance to be covered by the remotest was inconsider- 
able. Growth to the north as well as to the south might 
take place, and did take place, yet the convenience of 
all new comers would be equally served. The com- 
mittee drove a good bargain, as the lots then held by 
the city on Eighty-Fourth and Eighty-Fifth Streets 
were valued at three hundred dollars apiece in 1851. 
It would be interesting as well as gratifying to know 
who the contributors were, as we, their successors, owe 
them a debt of gratitude, a debt which we should will- 
ingly pay at the present time when commemorating 
the origin of our parish on the golden jubilee of its 
passing to the care of the Jesuits. But unfortunately, 
so far, no complete record of their names is at hand. 

But it was much easier to raise money and buy 
property for a new church than it was to get a Priest 
to serve the church. The rapid increase of Catholics 
in the already established parishes called for more and 



16 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

more Priests. Religious communities were increasing 
and demanded, though they did not always receive, the 
desired ministration of Priests. Every Priest was 
obliged to say two Masses on Sunday, and even then 
some subjects had to be neglected; and as late as 1857 
the Sisters of the Good Shepherd had to do without 
confession for five weeks, and some of their charges 
were kept waititng for three months before they could 
make a very necessary general confession. In the 
whole diocese there were but ninety-nine Priests in 
1850. Nine Levites had been raised to the Priesthood 
in that year. In 1851 there were one hundred and 
nine Priests, but on the other hand, there were but 
four candidates ordained, a very poor outlook for an 
increasing archdiocese. 

Unexpectedly a strange Priest with highest recom- 
mendations asked for work in New York in the sum- 
mer of 1851. He was the tenth, added to the nine 
ordained the year before. He was most gladly ac- 
cepted by Archbishop Hughes, and was given charge 
of organizing a parish at Yorkville. 

Rev. Eugene O'Reilly 
First Pastor. 

The founder of our parish was born in Mullogh- 
owen, Co. Cavan, in 1822. His ancestors were the oc- 
cupants of the principality of Brefifni which corresponds 
closely with County Cavan, and almost entirely with 
the present diocese of Kilmore, to which the parish 
of Mullogh belongs. Though despoiled of their lands 
and expatriated from their tribal bounds, many of the 



ORGANIZATION 17 

sept returned to their ancient seats to rise slowly from 
the position of practical serfdom to independence. 
Many are still there, and the clergy of Kilmore has been 
largely recruited from their ranks. Though the hand 
of death has recently lain heavily on the clergy of the 
family of O'Reilly, there yet remained last year six of 
that name of the seventeen of a few years ago> in a 
total of one hundred and one Priests in the diocese of 
Kilmore. Eugene's father was the sixth of ten chil- 
dren, four daughters and six sons, of whom one became 
a Priest and labored for some years in Baltimore and 
New Haven, Ct., and another became a physician in 
Kilkenny. The family belonged to the better class of 
farmers, and were able in trying times to maintain 
their independence and their home. The performance 
of an act of charity occasioned the exile, for a time, 
of Father Philip O'Reilly; but he was able to return 
to Ireland and received back his former parish, Mul- 
loghowen. He studied in Paris and prided himself on 
his freedom from, the oath of allegiance to^ the British 
government, which students of Maynooth were forced 
to take. As parish Priest of St. Mary's Church, Go- 
vanstown, Maryland, he was able to give a last home 
to his nephew, and to lay him in his final resting place 
in the adjoining cemetery. 

Eugene O'Reilly was the eldest son and third child 
in a family of ten, five boys and five girls. He was a 
precocious child, and probably received his first lesson 
from his father, John O'Reilly; and as soon as he was 
old enough and strong enough went to the parish school 
which was established before the government or 
National Schools were inaugurated in 1833. He 



18 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVTLLE 

studied Latin under a tutor named Brady, one of a 
large class of men who did incalculable good for the 
Irish church before the establishment of Academies 
and Colleges, often at the risk of their liberty, if not 
of their lives. Mr. Brady did his work well and had 
good material to work upon. His young charge was 
able to pass the examination for Maynooth long before 
the ordinary age, and finished his course of Philosophy 
and Theology before he reached the canonical years 
for ordination. 

While at home for his vacation at the end of his 
studies, waiting for the slow months to move along, 
Eugene O'Reilly met Dr. Richard Smith, third Bishop 
and first Archbishop of Port of Spain, Trinidad. The 
Bishop was on a visit to his brother-in-law, Mr. Mc- 
Partland, and looking for recruits for his tropical see, 
then very much in need of evangelical laborers. He 
was fortunate enough to get three volunteers, amongst 
them Eugene O'Reilly, waiting for ordination. The 
transfer from allegiance to Kilmore to Port of Spain 
seems to have been effected without difficulty, and the 
Bishop having power as a ruler of a missionary coun- 
try to dispense with one year in age in candidates for 
ordination, Bishop Smith proceeded to confer Holy 
Orders on his new subject in presence of father, 
mother and whole family in the parish chapel served 
at the time by the uncle of the candidate, Rev. Philip 
O'Reilly. It was a happy day for the Bishop, for the 
candidate, for the uncle, for the family and numerous 
friends. The mother's tears of joy were mingled with 
tears of regret at a parting which proved to be final. 
Another candidate would have gladly joined the youth- 



ORGANIZATION 19 

ful band of missionaries to the negroes of the tropics, 
Fr. Farrell, a cousin to Rev. Eugene O'Reilly, but his 
mother, Mrs. Farrell (Bridget O'Reilly) could not 
reconcile her mother's heart to a separation which she 
feared might equal her days. He came to the United 
States, however, was vicar general to Bishop Timon 
in Buffalo for several years, but returned in 1866 to 
close his mother's eyes in death. 

One who was present on that happy summer day at 
the ordination in Mulloghowen describes the Rev. Eu- 
gene O'Reilly as of medium height, slim, with brown 
hair, of very fair complexion and extremely hand- 
some. Handsome features would prove no impediment 
in his labors amongst the poor negroes in Trinidad; 
but the very fair skin tinged with red in his cheeks, 
would be a poor protection against the fierce glare of 
the tropics. However, he threw himself with ardor 
into his work, accommodating his fine talents to the 
very limited intelligence of those who sought or who 
allowed his ministrations. His patience, tact, zeal and 
sympathy won over many who could understand these 
traits, though they might not catch the force of his 
theological arguments. He brought thousands to the 
faith, and their grandchildren now go to swell the 
gratifying numbers in the Archdiocese of Port of 
Spain, in Trinidad. 

But what a cost to his health ! He was never robust ; 
the food, the heat, the fevers of the pestilential low- 
lands laid him prostrate in a few years and to save his 
life he had to seek a cooler climate. The Archbishop 
parted from him with reluctance and gave him a testi- 
monial of the warmest commendation. He might have 



20 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

returned to Ireland. Perhaps he feared to show him- 
self in his wretched condition to his mother and to 
justify the objections of his Aunt Bridget to the depart- 
ure of her son, Rev. Francis Farrell, for the tropics 
seven years before. He left home a missionary, and a 
missionary he would remain to the end of his days. 
His countrymen had been flocking- to the port of New 
York in larger numbers than ever before. He under- 
stood the negro and could influence him for his sal- 
vation. He knew that he understood the Irish, and 
hoped to influence them still more, and keep alive in 
their hearts that staunch faith which was proof against 
temptation, which had preferred death by starvation 
to life purchased by apostacy and Protestant soup. 

With his dimissorial letter and strong recommenda- 
tion as a valuable worker, he received a warm wel- 
come from the great hearted Archbishop Hughes and 
was the one hundred and ninth Priest in the vast Arch- 
diocese of New York. His coming solved the problem 
of the needs of Yorkville. After a short rest from his 
long voyage, he was put into contact with the commit- 
tee of Catholics who had been working for some 
months to bring about the establishment of a new 
parish, and received from them the warm welcome due 
him as one who had sacrificed his health in laboring 
for an outcast people, far away from his home and in 
the pestilential tropics. The enthusiasm of the nascent 
congregation must have kindled the hopes of Father 
O'Reilly, accustomed as he was to the listless, shiftless, 
thriftless natives of Trinidad. Here was a people ac- 
customed to think and act for themselves, capable of 
independent initiative, hampered by no foreign domin- 



ORGANIZATION 31 

ance or ascendancy, blessed with strong faith and deem- 
ing themselves privileged to give to God's worship all 
that they could well spare from necessary expenses. 
They were poor in the world's goods, but they had a 
steady employment in municipal works, received good 
pay for that time, munificent pay according to the 
standard of their native homes and youth. As their 
lives were pure and simple, their wants were few and 
their savings relatively large. 

Despite his warm welcome and the enthusiasm of his 
new subjects, the task before him might easily have 
daunted a stronger man. Save for the four lots pur- 
chased by Mr. Lennon for one thousand dollars and 
deeded over to the Archbishop, there was nothing with 
which to commence his parochial labors. Rooms for 
the Priest had to be hired, vestments, chalice, candle- 
sticks, a temporary altar and a place in which to cele- 
brate Mass had to be secured. His work among the 
blacks of Trinidad had not made Fr. O'Reilly fastidi- 
ous, and so he was not too much shocked and dismayed 
when he learned that a dance hall, with a saloon at- 
tached, was to serve as a temporary church. On Au- 
gust 7th, Mr. Lennon paid Mr. Thinnes twelve dollars 
and fifty cents as rent for the remainder of the month 
for the second story of the house on the corner of 
Eighty-Sixth Street and Fourth Avenue. The front 
part of the house had been used as a saloon and the 
remainder for dancing purposes ; but evidently the bac- 
chanalian portion must be screened off from the portion 
destined for divine services, so for carpentry and lum- 
ber Mr. Lennon expended eighty-nine dollars. He 
erected a partition cutting off the chapel from the front 



22 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

of the hall, and constructed a private stairway at the 
east end of the building to accommodate those who 
wished to hear Mass. Part of the money may have 
been used for making rough benches for the worship- 
pers. He was provident enough to expend 25c on 
collection plates for the coming contributions toward 
divine worship. 

The first Mass was celebrated on Sunday, August 
10th, 1851, and the hall was rented up to January 1st, 
1852, but at an increasing sum as the months sped on. 
Presumably Mr. Thinnes' revenue from dancing, with 
the incidental eating downstairs and drinking upstairs, 
was greater than he could reap from letting his place as 
a temporary church. He charged thirty dollars for each 
of the months of November and December. The tin plates 
could hardly collect that amount as yet, and there was 
nothing positive to show for the outlay. They must have 
a church and a good one, their very own, in which to 
harbor the Eucharistic Guest; nothing could be good 
enough for Him ; they must have a school in which the 
young were to be trained up from the very dawn of 
reason in the dogmas of faith and in the principles of 
Christian morality; finally they ought to have a home 
for the Pastor, near the church and worthy of his 
calling. If anything could have effected a cure of Fr. 
O'Reilly's ills, these first meetings were calculated to 
inaugurate the recovery. Not much was expected of 
him and very little could he do. He was to give ap- 
probation to all the plans, if he judged them worthy of 
approval ; he was to give his sanction to the organiza- 
tion for carrying out the plans, he was to see that 
Church traditions were adhered to strictly. 



ORGANIZATION 23 

The first step taken was to provide for a temporary 
chapel whilst the parish church was being built. With 
few changes this might later serve as a school and a 
hall for parish purposes. A gabled frame building, 
thirty-five by sixty feet, was planned as a makeshift 
church, and much enterprise was displayed in its erec- 
tion; for it was ready for divine service in December. 
While the little wooden structure was taking shape, 
work was begun on the foundation of the church 
proper, and enough had been excavated to allow the 
foundation stone to be blessed and laid on October 
20th, 1851. An immense concourse of Catholics as 
well as Protestants assembled on that Monday after- 
noon. It is safe to say that none of the Protestants then 
present, and few of the Catholics, had witnessed the 
ceremony of blessing a corner-stone for a church, or 
understood the solemnity of the occasion of preparing 
a place for the offering up of a "clean oblation." "For 
from the rising of the sun even to the going down my 
name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place 
there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a 
clean oblation : for my name is great among the Gen- 
tiles, saith the Lord of Hosts." Malch. I, 11. The 
learned and eloquent Chief Pastor made known to all 
the sacredness of the place, and the sanctity of the 
Sacrifice to be offered in that place, and filled with 
joy and aroused the faith of the Catholics there pres- 
ent. Who, after hearing his burning words, could 
hesitate to have some little share in the rearing of an 
edifice for the offering up of a worthy oblation to the 
one true God? Parishioners and visitors from St. 
Paul's and St. John's and from more distant parishes 



24 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

made contributions according to their slender means, 
conscious that every little mite would help on the sacred 
cause, and would receive an eternal guerdon from Him 
Who will reward a cup of water given in His Name. 

The work of digging the foundations was rushed as 
long as the weather would allow, and was interrupted 
by the cold of winter. The unusual cold of Yorkville 
heights was a severe tax on the strength of Fr. 
O'Reilly, born in the mild climate of Ireland, and to a 
certain extent acclimated to the sultry and moisture- 
laden air of the Tropics. Instead of growing stronger 
as he had hoped from a change of climate, his de- 
bility increased, tuberculosis set in, sapping his energy, 
and he could do little more than say Mass and attend 
his few sick-calls. The coming heat brought no ac- 
cession of strength, and he became conscious that he 
was unfit for the task he had undertaken. While yet 
before his prime, normally at the beginning of a man's 
career, he was forced to resign himself to failure. His 
talents, his training, his zeal must acknowledge help- 
lessness. It is the hardest admission for an ambitious 
man to concede that he is a failure, it is the crushing 
out of pride. But with the gift of faith, it is the last 
sacrifice of independent man, the last stroke of resem- 
blance to the Divine Master. "Not my will, but thine 
be done," said Christ in the Garden of Gethsemani; 
"Not my will but thine be done," said Fr. O'Reilly when 
the conviction was forced on his mind that his work 
on earth was concluded. He determined to resign the 
charge which he would have loved to fill, which he was 
young enough to fill, for forty years, up to our recent 
days. He was without means, as the poor negroes of 



ORGANIZATION 25 

Trinidad had nothing to give. His meagre salary in 
Yorkville was barely sufficient to clothe and support 
him. , 

On the 5th of August, 1852, just lacking five days 
of one year since he took charge of St. Lawrence's 
parish, he resigned his care into the hands of Arch- 
bishop Hughes. His uncle, Rev. Philip O'Reilly, in 
whose church of Mulloghowen, he had been ordained 
eight years before, had been assigned to the church of 
St. Mary, Govanstown, Md., a few months previously. 
With him, Eugene O'Reilly, a physical wreck, deter- 
mined to spend the last months of his life, either by 
the invitation of the uncle or by the request of the 
nephew. Here on the 11th of December, 1852, he 
peacefully breathed his last and found a final resting- 
place. "As a gentleman, a priest and friend he was 
perfect and sincere, truly pious and unassuming, though 
endowed with talents of no mean order." He died of 
rapid consumption in the thirty-first year of his age. 



CHAPTER III 

Construction. 

i. father thos. ouellet, s. j. 

Scarcely had the parish of St. Lawrence been organ- 
ized and divine services regularly established, when a 
vacancy occurred and a problem was created by the 
resignation of Fr. O'Reilly. Priests were few in com- 
parison with the growing needs of the Archdiocese. 
For a time Archbishop Hughes could assign no one 
to take charge of Yorkville, and prosecute the task of 
building a church. In his difficulty he called upon the 
Jesuits whom he had invited a few years before to 
establish a college at Fordham and direct his diocesan 
Seminary. They took charge of the young institution 
in 1845. Here were united for a time Seminarians, 
Jesuit students and aspirants for a higher secular edu- 
cation. Among the Jesuit Scholastics was Thomas 
Ouellet. He was born on December 21st, 1819, at St. 
Elizabeth, Joliette, Canada. After making his classical 
studies with marked success, he entered the Grand Sem- 
inary at Montreal to prepare for the Priesthood, at the 
expense of his uncle. After completing three years of 
his theological course he felt called to the Society of 
Jesus, a call approved by his spiritual director and con- 
sented to, contrary to his expectations, by his uncle. 
On the 14th of August he entered the Novitiate of the 
Society of Jesus, near the city of Montreal. At the 



CONSTRUCTION 27 

end of two years he was sent to Fordham, N. Y., to 
continue his theology, and was ordained on January 
16th, 1848, by Bishop Hughes. His course of theo- 
logy was ended by a successful examination in 1848. 
He was engaged in teaching for a number of years, 
and while so employed he was called upon to fill on 
Sundays the vacancy at Yorkville, easily reached from 
Fordham by rail to Eighty-Sixth Street. Engaged in 
teaching as he was, he could do little more than say 
Mass, or possibly two Masses, on a Sunday, attend to 
any sick call that was urgent and baptize the newly 
born. For hurry calls during the week it was necessary 
to have recourse to St. Paul's, Harlem, or to St. John's 
on Fiftieth Street. His name appears on our Baptismal 
Register. But his ministrations were so few, practical- 
ly a little over two months, that he might easily be 
passed over in silence, were his career not an interest- 
ing one, not only to St. Lawrence parish, but to New 
York. In Fordham and Montreal he spent seven years 
in college work, and as disciplinarian he was rigid, 
thorough, and, of course, disliked by those who pre- 
ferred their own way to strict obedience. In 1857 
he went to France to make his Third Year preparatory 
to taking his final vows in the Society. Next year he 
taught History at St. Acheul, near Amiens. For two 
succeeding years he was disciplinarian and professor 
of French in Poland. 

He returned to the United States at the outbreak of 
the Civil War and accepted the post of Military Chap- 
lain to the 69th Regiment. His French spirit was 
captivated, no less by the romance of the post than by 
zeal for the spiritual welfare of the troops. He saw but 



28 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

little romance, very much danger, many privations, did 
untold good and won for himself golden opinions from 
men and officers, Protestant and Catholic. During bat- 
tle he took his place on the firing line, in the most ex- 
posed spot, to be nearer to those who fell, and give 
them the promptest aid. Needless to say, such bravery 
won him respect and authority, an authority which 
was invaluable to him in the exercise of his ministry. 
He would brook no interference with his duties as 
chaplain, and no one ever tried it a second time. He 
was a strict disciplinarian, not only in college, but in 
the army too, and his strictness was more appreciated 
in the army because it was evidently unselfish, and al- 
ways exerted for the honor of God and good of souls. 
He took part in the important battles of Fredericks- 
burg, Antietam, The Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Spott- 
sylvania and Petersburg. Few of his men survived 
Fredericksburg. 

When he was mustered out of the army in 1865, he 
was engaged in works of the ministry in various 
churches for fourteen years; at St. Francis Xavier's, 
from which he attended Blackwell's Island in 1866 ; 
in St. Peter's, Jersey City, in Quebec, Montreal, in 
Guelph, Ontario. Finally he settled down among the 
Indians at Garden City, near Sault Sainte Marie, On- 
tario. Work in the limelight is more attractive, even to 
Gallic genius, than labor in obscurity. But the same 
spirit that animated Fr. Ouellet in the hopeless charges 
on Marye's Height at Fredericksburg carried him 
through the dull days spent among stolid Indians from 
1879 to 1893. There was no human glory attached 
to the post, but there were souls to be saved, a work 



CONSTRUCTION 29 

that called for heroism as much as the duties of Army 
Chaplain, one that sought no human applause, and that 
received none. His labors overtaxed his health, and he 
was forced to retire for treatment to Montreal. A few 
months' care by the Sisters at the great Hotel Dieu 
gave him a new lease on life, and he returned to his 
post for two years more. Increasing age and infirmity 
made his recall imperative in 1893. He was stationed 
as Spiritual Father at the College of the Immaculate 
Conception, near Montreal. On August 15th, 1894, 
he celebrated his Golden Jubilee in religion, and died 
peacefully on November 26th the same year, after a 
twelvemonth of comparative rest amongst his Brothers 
in religion. Writing to Monsignor Lynch of Utica, 
N. Y., on November 23rd, 1893 he said:— "I pro- 
nounce my name Wellett, not Willett. But as the 
English speaking people generally pronounce it Willet, 
for a time, when I was in the States, particularly as 
Chaplain of the 69 Regiment, N. Y. S. V., to facilitate 
the spelling and pronouncing of my name for Ameri- 
cans, I wrote my name Willett." 1 Father Ouellet was a 
short, spare, active, lively man, entirely taken up with 
work for souls. 2 

II. REV. WALTER J. QUARTER, SECOND PASTOR. 

The strong, tall, rugged, manly form of Father 
Quarter presented the most marked contrast to the 
delicate, refined, almost feminine features of Father 
O'Reilly with his slight, emaciated, fever stricken and 
consumptive frame. Father Quarter had recently re- 

1 Communicated by Mr. Wm. McLaughlin. 

2 These items are taken from the "Woodstock Letters," 1895, p. 876, and 
from Monsignor Lynch's: "A Page of Church History in New York." 



30 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

turned to New York from the breezy plains of Illinois, 
and was assistant at St. Brigid's for some months. 
From the beginning of his priestly career he had been 
a church builder, and was just the man to take hold of 
St. Lawrence's parish and push the interrupted work to 
a successful conclusion. 

Father Quarter was born in Killurine, Kings Co., Ire- 
land, in the year 1801, of Michael Quarter and Ann 
Bennet. They belonged to the "better class" of far- 
mers, and were enabled to give their children a good 
education, beginning with a most Christian training in 
the home. Morning and Evening Prayers were of ob- 
ligation, and the rosary was said every day by the whole 
family. The mother took charge of her children's in- 
struction, not only in piety, but in letters too, for 
which charge her own training well fitted her. She 
belonged to a family which had given nineteen num- 
bers to the Church or the Hierarchy and had herself 
the privilege, a rare one at that time in Ireland, of being 
educated in a Convent. Of her four sons, three em- 
braced the ecclesiastical state, Walter, our subject, Wil- 
liam, the first Bishop of Chicago, and James, who died 
at sea before receiving Holy Orders, while on his way 
to join his brothers. The Bishop, and presumably the 
other brothers, made their classical studies in Tulla- 
more, at the private Academy of John and Thomas 
Fitzgerald. 

About 1821, Father McAuley, brother to Count Mc- 
Auley of Frankfort, returned to Ireland from America, 
where he had been laboring on the mission. His ac- 
count at the home of the Quarters of the spiritual desti- 
tution of the Catholics in America, on account of the 



CONSTRUCTION 31 

scarcity of Priests, the vast spaces to be traversed, and 
the difficulties of proper instruction, made a very strong 
impression on the family, and William, the most ad- 
vanced in his studies, made application to his Bishop, 
Dr. Doyle, for permission to join the Church in Amer- 
ica, a permission given with reluctance, as he was a 
most promising subject. He made application for 
adoption in the Diocese of Quebec, but was refused on 
account of his youth. A like refusal met him in Mont- 
real. Turning his back on the British Dominions, he 
crossed the border into the States, where he was much 
more needed, and where he was cordially received, and 
accepted as a Seminarian at Mount St. Mary's by the 
President, Dr. Dubois. Here he remained for seven 
years, and when Dr. Dubois was named Bishop of New 
York, Mr. Quarter followed him to this city and was 
ordained on the 19th of September, 1829, by dispensa- 
tion, as he had not yet reached canonical age. 

Walter Quarter followed his brother to Canada, and 
was received into the Seminary of Chambly, near Mon- 
treal, but decided to join his brother William, and was 
accepted at Mount St. Mary's as well on his own ac- 
count as because of his relationship with the brilliant 
Mr. Quarter there resident as a student and a teacher. 
Finishing his course at the Mount, and having been 
adopted into the diocese of New York, he was ordained 
Priest on April 28th, 1833, by Bishop Dubois, in the 
Old Cathedral here, being the fifteenth Priest to re- 
ceive Holy Orders in the city and diocese. 

The confidence placed in Father Walter J. Quarter 
is manifested in his first appointment. Before he was 
quite two months a Priest he was sent to take charge 



32 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLB 

of St. John's Church, Utica, with the greater part of 
Western New York as his parish. A sick call of a 
hundred miles or more was a matter of course, with 
few trails and fewer roads through "the forest prime- 
val." He needed all the strength of his powerful frame, 
and all the zeal that prompted him to leave home, fam- 
ily and country, in order to bring aid to the spiritually 
destitute, to carry him without faltering through his 
many and difficult tasks. He was not the man to fal- 
ter. He immediately set about preparing a confirma- 
tion class in his parish, the second time the sacrament 
was administered in that part of the country. His 
growing parish called for a larger church and ably 
seconded by a loyal flock, he set about collecting for 
the new edifice to cost 20,000 dollars. In 
a short time he had 6,000 dollars, and mean- 
time he prepared for Confirmation another class 
consisting of 150 persons, young and old. 
He introduced into his parish a band of Sisters of 
Charity, whom he had learned to value as a student 
at Emmetsburg. To them he entrusted his girls' 
school and an orphan asylum. By 1836 he had finished 
his new church and continued to administer his parish 
until 1839. 

He had done his work well, and was entitled to an 
easier post. It was now possible for a less energetic 
worker to carry on the mission, as the country was 
made more accessible by the opening of the railroad 
for traffic on June 27th, 1839. Father Quarter was 
assigned to the Church of St. Mary's, where his brother 
was Pastor. Here he remained up to 1842, when an- 
other difficult mission was assigned to him. There was 
but one church in Hudson County, New Jersey, and 



CONSTRUCTION 33 

that "a mere skeleton of a church"; and, what was 
much worse, the congregation was divided and at strife. 
To heal this evil and complete the church was the task 
confided to Fr. Quarter by Bishop Hughes in 1842. 
"In two years he made St. Peter's congregation one of 
the most pious and prosperous in the United States." 
He completed the church and was ready for more dif- 
ficult labors. 

In 1843, Chicago was made a bishopric, whose terri- 
tory covered the entire state of Illinois. Father Wil- 
liam Quarter was chosen first Bishop, and was conse- 
crated in St. Patrick's Cathedral, on March 10th, 1844. 
For such a large diocese the few priests there were in- 
adequate, and there was neither college nor seminary 
and but few churches scattered over a vast territory. 
To face the difficulties of his new post, Bishop Quarter 
needed the courage of a hero, and loyal support from 
laity and clergy. He took his brother, Walter, with 
him from New York, and made him his Vicar General. 
Here was an opportunity for the latter to exercise his 
zeal, his tact, his experience and executive ability. All 
these he threw into his work for God's honor and his 
Bishop's success. Churches, schools, a college, a sem- 
inary for the training of Priests, were founded and 
brought to completion mainly through the exertions of 
Father Walter. On the death of the Bishop, on April 
10th, 1848, he was appointed Administrator until the 
consecration of Bishop Van de Velde, S. J., and by 
him was retained as Vicar General until his resigna- 
tion and return to New York in 1851. Coming back 
from another diocese he took his place at the foot of 
the ladder, and was appointed Assistant at St. Brigid's. 



CHAPTER IV 
fr. quarter (continued.) 

His experience in Utica, Jersey City, and Chicago, 
marked out Father Quarter as the man best fitted to 
bring the Yorkville project to a successful conclusion. 
He was yet a vigorous man, though on the downward 
slope of years ; he knew how to deal successfully with 
men, was full of zeal for God's work, and was able to 
inspire others in the same cause — and what was much 
harder, he could persuade them to make sacrifices for 
religion, and deem themselves honored in being allowed 
to contribute of their slender means towards the rear- 
ing and embellishment of God's house. 

On October 20th, 1852, he took charge of the parish 
and set about utilising all his means to perfect the 
work entrusted to him. He found part of the founda- 
tion work completed, but the greater part yet unfin- 
ished. The season was too far advanced now to re- 
sume construction, so he turned his attention towards 
financing the work for the coming spring. He organ- 
ized a Building Committee of twelve, and utilized their 
energy and good will to canvass the parish for funds. 
Father Quarter himself, during the moments he could 
spare from his parochial and priestly duties, made ap- 
peals to personal friends, and to parishes where he had 
labored formerly, appeals which had gratifying results. 
We must ever keep in mind the difference between 
those days and ours, the poverty of the donors and the 

34 



CONSTRUCTION 35 

greater relative value of money sixty years ago. Rev. 
John Ryan, S. J., pastor of St. Francis Xavier's, led off 
with a collection of two hundred and fifty dollars ; Rev. 
James McMahon of St. John's, East Fiftieth Street, 
gave the sum of one hundred and fifty three dollars; 
Father McAleer gave one hundred and five dollars; 
Rev. M. Curran, a life-long friend, administering the 
parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Astoria, con- 
tributed one hundred and five dollars; Father John 
Kelly, of St. Peter's, Jersey City, gave a collection of 
three hundred and seventy-three dollars; while Very 
Rev. William Starrs, V. G., pastor of St. Mary's, 
handed him the munificent sum of six hundred dollars. 
Father Quarter's popularity in St. Peter's, 1 Jersey City, 
and at Saint Mary's, made itself felt in the collections 
from these two parishes. 

With the sums collected in St. Lawrence parish and 
the donations from outside amounting to 1,621 dollars, 
Father Quarter felt encouraged to go on with construc- 
tion, and to purchase two additional lots to which he 
removed the temporary wooden church. On June 8th, 
1853, work on the superstructure was commenced. 
The contractors were Messrs. Berrian and McAuliffe, 
the former for the masonry and the latter for car- 
pentry. On Christmas Day, 1853, Mass was celebrated 
for the first time in the new church, though the interior 
was not yet finished. The altar was designed by Mr. 
McAuliffe. Rev. William Quin, pastor of St. Peter's, 
made a present of the first pulpit used in the city of 
New York, an interesting relic which has since been 
lost to view. That first Mass on Christmas Day and 

1 From the researches of Mr. McLaughlin. 



36 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

the unfinished condition of the interior revealed the 
need of a more ornate home for the Babe of Bethle- 
lem, and opened the purse-strings wide. The parish 
had received a Christmas present from the energetic 
pastor, and the parishioners responded liberally to one 
who worked untiringly for their needs and their com- 
fort, if not for their pride. Proud the people certainly 
were of their new church. 

The appreciation of the congregation is well ex- 
pressed in the following words of one then young in 
years, but old in observation, now grown old in years, 
but still young in expression. "My earliest recollec- 
tion of old St. Lawrence's dates back to 1856. In 
1858 I became an altar-boy and continued as such until 

1863 The church, as I recall it, I have roughly 

sketched herewith ; I only wish I could present it as the 
thing of beauty it has remained all these years in the 
tablets of my memory, a plain brick structure, devoid 
of any exterior ornament, painted a dull gray, a wood 
cross on the apex, and on the front, just beneath the 
cornice, a small marble slab set in the bricks, bearing 
the inscription in Latin : 

Omnipotenti Deo 
Sub Invocatione 
Sancti Laurentii 

"A pair of large doors opening inward — later re- 
versed — two side doors, plain glass windows, hard- 
wood pews and kneeling benches, an old organ, plaster 
statuary, chromo stations of the Cross, plain altar-rail 
and white wood altar, candles in the gallery posts for 
illumination and on the altar to typify the light of 



CONSTRUCTION 37 

faith. Collections were taken up in tin plates, and 
while the good people did not have much to give, what 
was lacking in quantity was compensated for in the 
''big noise" when copper met tin. 

"I don't know how others may feel in this respect, 
but I cannot get away from the feeling that dear old 
St. Lawrence's with its plain wood altar, its plaster 
statuary, its old glass windows, its two old coal-burn- 
ing stoves, its plain little organ, its faded and well- 
worn matting, its primitive lights, its dear old altar- 
rail, its cracked gong and its chromo stations, seems 
dearer, far dearer, to my heart, more beautiful to my 
sight, and more lasting in my memory than the mag- 
nificent structure on Park Avenue." 

The church, 100 by 60 feet, was ready for dedication 
in June. Accordingly Archbishop Hughes, accom- 
panied by his Vicar General, Father Starrs, came to 
Yorkville on Sunday, June 11th, for the ceremony. 
The latter was followed by Solemn High Mass cele- 
brated by Very Rev. Wm. Starrs, Rev. Isidore Dau- 
bresse, S. J. of Fordham, Deacon, Rev. H. J. Brady 
of Chicago, Sub-Deacon and Rev. Thomas S. Preston, 
Master of Ceremonies. There were present in the 
sanctuary besides the Pastor, Rev. James McMahon 
of St. John's, Rev. John Jos. Conroy, St. John's, New- 
ark, Rev. John J. Ryan, S. J. Rector of St. Francis 
Xavier's, Rev. Michael Curran, of Astoria, Rev. 
Michael McAleer of St. Columba's and Rev. John 
Kelly of St. Peter's, Jersey City, with a goodly number 
of Seminarians from Fordham. The cost of the 
church was 15,000 dollars. 

A school for the parish next demanded the attention 



38 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

of the pastor. To facilitate work on the new church, 
the temporary wooden church had been moved west- 
ward to two lots purchased in April, 1853, for $1,400. 
Owing to the completion of the brick church the 
wooden building was free and was fitted up for school 
purposes. On April 1st the building was occupied as 
a school. "The classes, including boys and girls, were 
in one large room. There were divisions, but the par- 
titions did not extend to the ceiling." During the first 
few months the classes were in charge of lay teachers. 
But on November 4th Father Quarter secured some 
Sisters of Charity from old Mount St. Vincent, 107th 
Street near Fifth Avenue. They opened a select 
school in a building yet standing, 73 East Eighty-Sixth 
Street, and from there after December 4th they came to 
teach the classes of the parochial school. Sister Dom- 
itilla, still remembered with affection by her surviving 
pupils, was in charge. 

The parochial residence from the beginning of the 
parish was, as tradition has it, a small frame building, 
No. 987 Fourth Avenue, lately removed to make room 
for the apartment house at the South-East corner of 
Eighty-Fourth Street and Park Avenue. Later a house 
was rented on Eighty-Third Street near Fourth Avenue, 
and soon after at Eighty-Fourth Street and Third Ave- 
nue and finally on Eighty-Sixth Street near Madison 
Avenue. These homes were small, but large enough for 
the pastor and a transient guest. As Father Quarter 
was a large-hearted, popular man, and hospitable in 
proportion to his size, the guests were not few. The 
latch-string of the door was ever on the outside. 
These welcome guests helped to lighten the burden of 



CONSTRUCTION 39 

work in the growing parish. Though there was no 
officially appointed assistant to the pastor until the 
coming of Father Samuel Mulledy in July, 1861, no 
less than seven priests lent their aid in the spiritual 
work of the parish, as appears from frequent entries 
in the Baptismal Register. The first of these, written 
down as Assistant in Father Quarter's own hand on 
the fly-leaf of the Register, is Rev. J. J. Conroy, who 
is designated in the account of the dedication cere- 
monies as assistant at St. John's, Newark. He re- 
mained at St. Lawrenec's from March, 1853, to August, 
1854, and received a small salary, though he was not 
affiliated to the diocese. In January, 1855, Rev. John 
Breen assisted in the work of the parish. He was a 
priest of Chicago, but followed Father Quarter to 
New York, as did also Rev. J. A. Kinsella and W. H. 
Clowry. Father Breen baptized for a good part of 
three years, the others not so often. He was Chaplain 
to the Sisters of Charity before their removal to the 
banks of the Hudson at Mount St. Vincent, and be- 
came pastor of St. Ann's Church in 1860. Father 
Kinsella was adopted into the diocese and was given 
charge of the parish of Westchester. Rev. W. H. 
Clowry, the third to leave the diocese of Chicago and 
to enjoy the hospitality of Father Quarter, after a 
time became Assistant at St. Stephen's and finally Pas- 
tor of St. Gabriel's. The Sisters of Mercy remember 
him with pleasure and gratitude. Rev. H. T. Brady, 
for two years Chaplain at Blackwell's Island, assisted 
in the work of baptizing from October 12th, 1856, and 
as long as he remained at Blackwell's. Subsequently 
he left the city of New York and took the post of As- 



40 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

sistant at St. Patrick's, Providence, R. I. Father Rob- 
ert Byrne, Chaplain at Sing Sing for two years, fre- 
quently signs his name in our Register during Father 
Quarter's incumbency, but disappears after April 
7th, 1861. Another guest who had helped for a few 
months was Rev. P. J. McGlynn, in 1858, and again 
for a few weeks from April 7th, 1861. After July 8th, 
1861, Father Mulledy's name alone is found along with 
Father Quarter's, and occurs with more and more fre- 
quency until the last entry is made by the Pastor on 
September 3rd, 1863. 

In June, 1858, Father Quarter commenced building 
a more spacious and commodious house on Eighty- 
Fourth Street on a plot of ground just east of the 
church, and separated from it by an area which was 
afterward enclosed and served as an office for the 
Pastor and a place of meeting for callers on the Pas- 
tor. The house cost 4,000 dollars and was occupied on 
November 15th. One thing yet remained to be done, 
the construction of a suitable vestry for the church, 
and this Father Quarter undertook and carried to com- 
pletion the next year, 1859. In five years he success- 
fully finished all that was essential for a growing 
parish, collected all the money necessary for his work 
from subjects of very limited means, and left but little 
for his successors to do for several years, except to 
meet a slight debt which could be easily borne by a 
willing congregation. Father Quarter's popularity 
made his task, difficult in itself, comparatively a light 
one. Yorkville was with him, Protestant as well as 
Catholic. He was a manly man, whom all could ad- 
mire; tall, strong, venerable. He had a massive head 



CONSTRUCTION 41 

crowned with long white hair, eyes that sparkled with 
benevolence, a ponderous chin betokening unlimited 
latent power. Those who remember him are fond of 
alluding to his "big stick" ; but the influence which he 
exercised was due, not to the big stick, but the big 
heart that went out in kindliness to all who knew him. 
While he was ever a man of principle, and never a 
man of compromise, he could pity the wrongdoer and 
hate the wrong. He was a Father to all his people, 
a Father who spoke strongly the plain truth, and de- 
nounced vice irrespective of the persons whom his 
words might hit. Feelings might smart at the mo- 
ment, but there was no resentment. For all knew that 
he sought God in all he did, and not himself ; that their 
souls were his only care, and the eternal welfare of 
their souls the object of his words. His influence was 
used to good purpose during the Draft Riots in July, 
1863. Though the main disturbance occurred in the 
lower and middle sections of the city, resentment was 
felt and disorder took place in Yorkville. There was 
a large body of laborers engaged on the reservoir in 
the Park and their democracy was deeply offended that 
the rich could escape service with the army by the pay- 
ment of 300 dollars, while the poor man had no alterna- 
tive but don a uniform and shoulder a gun on the battle- 
field. The rioting on Saturday, July 11th, was made 
known, and hot-heads and demagogues naturally ap- 
proved. On Sunday Father Quarter spoke vigorously 
on the obligation of performing civic duties, the unlaw- 
fulness of violence, the sanctity of property rights. 
There was no disposition at first to do more than protest 
against the inequality of the draft, and hinder its con- 



42 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

tinuance. The disorderly element, thieves, pickpockets, 
incendiaries and harborers of private grudges found 
this a favorable occasion to let their passions loose, and 
gratify their evil propensities. Most of the property 
damage was done by these, not by the men who pro- 
tested against the inequality of the draft. As far as in 
him lay, Father Quarter tried to stem the tide of law- 
lessness, and lives and property were saved through 
his energy and power, though he could not prevent 
some serious damage to property near his door. 

On Tuesday night standing in a light wagon on the 
bridge at Eighty-Third Street, he harangued a crowd 
of men vehemently, and pleaded for law and order. A 
violent thunder storm aided his oratory in dispersing 
the mob. He himself was thoroughly drenched be- 
fore the departure of the crowd, and in sodden clothes 
he sought the shelter of his home. It is thought that 
the drenching of that night coupled with his exertions 
in speech on that hot day chilled him and brought 
about the beginning of the end. His robust health be- 
gan to fail. His name does not appar in the Baptismal 
Register after September 3rd, his place being taken 
by Rev. H. Coyle, who probably was appointed to 
assist Father Mulledy, the regular Assistant, in the 
work of the parish. 

Like a good steward he set his house in order and 
arranged all his affairs, temporal and spiritual, to give 
a strict account to the just Judge whom he was about 
to meet. Admonished by the Vicar General a few 
days before his death that his time was short and his 
days numbered, he replied that he had attended to 
everything and was ready to go whenever the Lord 



CONSTRUCTION 43 

should call him. He had worked for God for thirty 
years, and though he did not claim to be perfect, he 
looked forward to the judgment without fear, in faith 
and hope and charity. Two things he attended to be- 
fore he breathed his last : he sent a deputation of his 
Treasurer and Secretary to the Vicar General with his 
dying request that Father Mulledy might be appointed 
as his successor, and asked a friend, Mr. McGinnis, to 
see that there was no water in the vault where he was 
to be buried beneath the church on the Epistle side. 
Both commissions were attended to, his wishes were 
satisfied. He died peaceably on the 15th of December, 
1863, after a painful illness of several weeks. "The 
announcement of the event, although it had been ex- 
pected several days previous to its occurrence, created 
the most profound regret among all classes, and poig- 
nant grief among the members of his congregation, 
who regarded him with the deep affection that children 
feel for a well-beloved parent. He had become, as it 
were, a part of their very selves ; his kindly and patri- 
archal face, his warm-hearted and paternal nature had 
so endeared him to all that the news of his death was 
received with feelings of the deepest regret. 

"At his Solemn Requiem on the 17th, Vicar General 
Starrs pronounced before a large congregation and an 
unusual assembly of the clergy a eulogy which drew 
tears from most persons who were present. After the 
burial in the vault many remained to pray as though 
unwilling to say a last farewell to their Sogarth 
Aroon." 1 

It will be interesting to the surviving admirers of 

1 From the New York Herald. 



44 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Father Quarter to know that the clergy of the Chicago 
diocese sent to Rome through the hands of Archbishop 
of Baltimore a petition that Walter Quarter, Vicar 
General, and then Administrator of the See, might be 
appointed to succeed his Right Reverend Brother, Wil- 
liam Quarter, deceased. The petition was not granted, 
as we know, but the compliment paid to him, a stranger 
in their midst, by the clergy of the diocese loses none 
of its force. 

Dr. Kinsella in the name of the clergy drew up the 
memorial and sent it to the Archbishop of Baltimore, 
"praying after the manner of a commendation first to 
the Archbishops of the United States, and afterwards 
to his Eminence, Cardinal Franzoni, Prefect of the 
Propaganda, that the Archbishops and His Eminence, 
Cardinal Franzoni, may recommend to the Holy See 
the Very Rev. W. J. Quarter, brother of our late 
lamented Bishop, who is also at present by the appoints 
ment of the Metropolitan, the Archbishop of Baltimore, 
the Administrator of the Diocese, to be elected as the 
succeeding Bishop of the See. By special request of 
the priests of the Diocese I am obliged to forward to 
you, Monsignor, in whom they place their greatest 
confidence, the above named Papers, which contain the 
unanimous expressions of their sentiment in the pres- 
ent important matter. 

Your Most Humble Servant, 

J. A. Kinsella, V. G., 
Prest. University St. M. the Lake." 

From Records of the Irish College, Rome, by A. C. 
H. S., and communicated by Mr. McLaughlin. 




Father Quarter 



CHAPTER V. 

Consolidation. 

rev. samuel mulledy, pastor. 

The dying request of Father Quarter was favorably 
received by the Vicar General, and Father Mulledy was 
apointed to succeed to the charge left vacant by his 
friend. Father Quarter had learned to appreciate the 
merits, the learning and the zeal of his assistant, and 
thought that his parish could not fall into better hands. 
He knew the people, and the people loved and respected 
him. He was not Father Quarter, he was totally un- 
like him, yet he had his own merits which endeared 
him to Yorkville. 

Father Mulledy was born in Romney, Virginia, now 
West Viginia, on the 27th of March, 1811. After his 
preliminary studies he entered Georgetown College, 
at that time one of the few places for academic and 
collegiate studies in' the country. When over twenty 
years of age he resolved to follow the example of his 
older Brother and seek admission into the Society of 
Jesus. He was accepted and was sent to the Novitiate 
at Whitemarsh, Md., on the 29th of August, 1831. 
On the completion of his term of probation he was ad- 
mitted to the simple vows of religion, and proceeded 
immediately to Rome for his higher studies in prep- 
aration for ordination. This selection of Rome for the 
prosecution of his studies is an indication of the supe- 



46 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

riority of his mental gifts. In order to secure a corps 
of eminent professors to teach later in American Col- 
leges, the most promising among the young subjects 
were selected by superiors to go abroad for their train- 
ing to assimilate all that they could, both in Rome and 
elsewhere, and in turn give out the best they had 
learned both in matter and method. 

Father Mulledy did not disappoint the expectation 
of his superiors. He applied himself closely and profit- 
ably to his different courses with such succecss that he 
was appointed to give a public defense in Theology 
which attracted attention even in Rome. To be se- 
lected out of so many students in the Roman College, 
collected from the four quarters of the globe, was quite 
a distinction ; but to account him the equal of his class- 
mate, Father Passaglia, S. J., a man of world-wide 
fame in Theology, is to place him in the front rank of 
divinity students. Yet such a tribute has been paid to 
the talents of Father Mulledy. He spent seven years 
in Rome, was ordained there in 1840, and, on passing 
his examination for grade in the Society, returned to 
America. 

The high idea entertained by superiors not only of 
his mental attainments, but of his religious spirit, is 
seen from his appointment to the post of Rector and 
Master of Novices on November 1st, 1841. After 
three years he was made Minister of Georgetown Col- 
lege, and was promoted to the rectorship next year, 
1845, a post which he resigned after one year to labor 
in the ministry at St. Joseph's in Philadelphia. During 
the school years 1847 and 1848, he taught Dogmatic 
Theology in Georgetown to the Jesuit Scholastics, but 



CONSOLIDATION 47 

gave up his post to Father Duvernay, S. J., a Swiss 
refugee who was able to teach a class of Theology, in 
which the Latin language was used exclusively, but 
could not teach other classes, owing to ignorance of 
English at the time. Father Mulledy taught the class 
of Rhetoric for one year and in 1850 he severed his 
connection with the Society. 

During the next ten years we find him in various 
cities, remaining in no place for any great length of 
time, and for some years disappearing altogether from 
the Catholic Directory. For two years, 1850 and 
1851, he was stationed at the Boston Cathedral, for 
two years in the Albany diocese, for two more, 1854 
and 1855, at Brooklyn Cathedral. For two years he 
taught at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Mass., and 
was next domiciled at St. Peter and Paul's Church in 
South Boston. From there he came to New York and 
was adopted by the Archbishop. He was Assistant at 
Yonkers in 1859 and 1860, and in 1861 he was assigned 
to St. Lawrence as Assistant to Father Quarter. His 
first entry on the pages of the Baptismal Record is 
under the date of July 8th, 1861. At the age of 50 
years he was tired of wandering without a fixed home 
or permanent occupation, and meeting with a warm 
welcome from the large-hearted Father Quarter, find- 
ing an example of a hard-working Pastor and plenty 
of work to do, and consolation in his work growing 
with his exertions, he settled down for the remainder 
of his days, and by occupation overcame his weakness 
and his instability. His learning and his abilities were 
appreciated by the congregation as well as by his Pas- 
tor. His instructions, brought down to the under- 



48 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

standing of his audience, left an indelible impression. 
There was no impassioned oratory in his sermons such 
as distinguished his younger days at Georgetown and 
Frederick, but a quiet dignity, a clear arrangement of 
matter, and a simple, transparent diction made his 
thoughts penetrate the minds and reach the hearts of 
his audience. "He gave his hearers always something 
to think about." He was of medium height, slightly 
stooped, spare, wiry, active, with thick, dark-brown 
hair, curling slightly, and worn long after the usual 
fashion of the time. In general he was reserved in 
his manner, "stern-looking but not a stern man," kind- 
ly towards all who approached him, and there were 
but few who were awed by his reserve. The name of 
"Father Sam" by which he was familiarly known in- 
dicates affection rather than fear inspired by him. As 
Father Quarter had his big stick, which he could effec- 
tively use on occasions, so Father Mulledy had his big, 
black Newfoundland dog as a companion and a pro- 
tection against the countless curs that infested the par- 
ish. He was probably timid and afraid of dogs; if so, 
he could walk unmolested night or day through all his 
district. One growl from the Newfoundland scared 
all the fight and all the impudence and all the barks out 
of the lesser fry, and left Father Mulledy to his 
thoughts and his devotions on his sick-calls. In his 
parochial duties Father Mulledy had the aid of Father 
W. Coyle his first year, and that of Father Hassan to 
the close of his life. But even with the assistance of a 
young man the growing parish was becoming a serious 
burden. The distances to be traversed were great 
and failing strength made these distances seem greater 



CONSOLIDATION 49 

than the reality. Father Mulledy was a sufferer from 
asthma, a distressing malady which made his labors 
still more difficult. Towards the end of 1865 he be- 
gan to suffer from an enlargement of the aorta, yet he 
continued his labors up to Christmas Day when he ad- 
ministered Baptism for the last time. 

Information as to his failing health reached Wash- 
ington and caused grave concern to some of his former 
associates in religion. Rev. Father Early, S. J., Presi- 
dent of Georgetown College, made anxious inquiries 
about his friend from the physician in attendance and 
received the following reply : 

"135 Avenue B, Jan. 5th, 1866. 
"Rev. and Dear Father : 

"In accordancce with my promise I beg to give you a 
brief statement of the Rev. Father Mulledy's case. He 
consulted me in reference to his present disease some 
few months since. I detected in its incipient stage the 
symptoms of the grave malady with which he has been 
afflicted, and which I believed to be aneurism — of the 
Aorta. I immediately called Prof. Austin Flint in con- 
sultation, who verified my diagnosis in every particu- 
lar. He has been since then several times examined 
by Dr. Flint and myself with a like result. Within the 
last two weeks his disease has assumed a very grave 
aspect as we anticipated. At your suggestion, Prof. 
James R. Wood has been called in consultation with us 
to-day and, as you are aware, he has confirmed our 
diagnosis. 

"In conclusion, I am sorry to add that there is not the 



50 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

slightest hope of my Reverend patient's recovery, and 
he is likely to die at any moment. 

"Very respectfully yours, 

"R. J. O'SULLIVAN." 
"Rev. Dr. Early." 

The end came soon according to the prediction of 
Doctor O' Sullivan, but not before the ardent desire 
of Father Mulledy's later years was gratified. At his 
earnest request the Provincial of Maryland consented 
to his readmission to the Society of Jesus and commis- 
sioned the Rector of St. Francis Xavier's College to 
receive the vows, which was done on January 4th, 1866. 
A life long friend, Father Early, President of George- 
town College, came to see him, to console him, to con- 
gratulate him on his restoration to the Society of Jesus. 
Whatever could be done for him was lovingly per- 
formed by the Sisters of Charity as well as by his 
housekeeper and his servant. Two Sisters were con- 
stantly attending him, and one who is yet alive was 
present in a room next to the dying Priest as he 
breathed his last. As soon as possible his body was laid 
out garbed in a Jesuit habit, very much to the surprise 
of those who flocked to the house at the announcement 
of his demise. 

The following circular was sent out by the Pro- 
vincial of Maryland to all the houses of his Province: 

"Loyola College, Jan. 15th, 1866. 

"Rev. Dear Father, P. C. : 

"The Rev. Samuel Mulledy, formerly a member of 
our Society, having been lately brought to the point of 



CONSOLIDATION 51 

death by a fatal illness, earnestly begged of me to re- 
admit him into the Society, in order that he might have 
the happiness of dying therein. By the advice of sev- 
eral of our Fathers, I granted his dying request. The 
news of his readmission filled him with so much joy 
and vigor, that, though in the agony of death, yet he 
sprang out of bed, and on his knees devoutly pro- 
nounced the Formula of the Simple Vows of the So- 
ciety in the presence of the Rev. Joseph Loysance, Rec- 
tor of St. Francis Xavier's College, New York. Four 
days after, namely on the night of the 8th inst, he died 
a most saintly and edifying death, having also had the 
consolation of being assisted in his last moments by 
one of the Fathers of our Province. 

"The usual suffrages of the Society will be offered 
for the repose of the soul of Father Samuel Mulledy, 
namely two Masses by the Priests, and two pairs of 
beads with the indulgence of two Communions by 
those who are not Priests. 

"Commending myself to your holy SS. 
"I am your Servant in Christ 

"A. M. PARESCE, S. J." 

(To be read in the Refectory) " 

After the funeral Mass all the Societies which owed 
their existencce to him, marched in procession from the 
church to the Harlem Bridge, accompanying the re- 
mains of their Father on the way to his last resting 
place in the Jesuit Cemetery on Fordham University 
grounds. 

The above letters were communicated by Rev. E. I. Devitt, S. J., of 
Georgetown University, once- a pupil under Father Mulledy at Holy Cross 
College, Worcester, Mass. 



52 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

The following appreciation from one who was a 
youthful admirer of Father Mulledy will be read with 
interest not only by those who knew him but by all 
those who are interested in the early history of the 
parish. Jesuits who remember Father "Sam" (so- 
called to distinguish him from his elder Brother 
"Tom") will readily endorse all that is recorded of his 
intellectual traits. 

"I cannot recall any person of the old days whose 
stride so resembled that of the seasoned military man. 
He was about 5 ft. 10 in. in height and weighed about 
180 pounds, brown hair, piercing black or very dark 
brown eyes, large hands and feet, sharp voice, quick ner- 
ous action and alertness of movement that indicated the 
working of the mind that must always be doing some- 
thing. Father Mulledy was one of those rare spirits 
who belong to no class ; the rules which apply to ordi- 
nary men broke down in estimating him. Although 
never ostentatiously or even consciously singular, he 
had a profound contempt for the merely conventional. 
To the superficial observer Father Mulledy was a piece 
of pure intellect, unemotional and thinking in syllog- 
isms where others thought in heart throbs. When 
speaking from the altar of old St. Lawrence's he was 
keen, exhaustive, unimpassioned ; this was his exterior ; 
but to the writer, who knew him, he was almost as sen- 
sitive as a child, and in reality Father "Sam", who 
seemed to be indifferent to the praise or blame of men, 
was touched by genuine gratitude or praise as few men 
are. Father Mulledy was a man of strong character 
and fixed opinions. As a man of the world I do not 
think he took a high place. His interests lay in the 



CONSOLIDATION 53 

sterner duties of life. If he had chosen a watchword 
to make use of when necessary, I think it would have 
been, Duty. He was not an emotional man ; there was 
a rigidity about him suggestive of the immovable. He 
gained and held the love and respect of every resident 
of Yorkville, and it may be confidently asserted that 
this feeling will remain with them while memory lasts. 
I cannot recall that Father Mulledy made any effort 
to win popularity, but he was a worker to his fingers' 
ends. 

"The daily 6 :30 Mass was always celebrated by him 
and for many years it was the writer's blessed privilege 
to assist thereat. After the Mass he always found 
time to speak a word of encouragement, advice or 
admonition. Ever kind and considerate to my failings, 
ever speaking in praise of my little efforts, he was at 
once Priest, Parent, Counselor and Guide. While he 
was available at all times, and ever ready to alleviate 
the mental or physical sufferings of the elders, it always 
seemed to me that he was never more at home than 
when he was acting as the Spiritual Director of our 
Boys' Sodality. At the weekly meetings in the old 
frame shack, called a schoolhouse by courtesy, his 
cheery 'Well, boys!' broke the ice and seemed to put 
master and man on a common plane. Whatever the 
elders may have thought of him in this respect, there 
never existed a gulf between Father 'Sam' and his 
boys. I do not recall his ever having been ill except 
for the few days preceding his death, and I remember 
how we were stricken dumb when the news of his 
death came forth. We boys wondered why he should 
die; why he was taken from us. 



54 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

"Perhaps it was innocence, perhaps ignorance, that 
we overlooked the fact that death must come to us all — » 
we were too young to grasp the wise significance of a 
Spiritual birth. 

" 'Rest comes to the toiler' — and that he who toiled 
so well in old St. Lawrence may rest in Peace through 
the endless eternity that lies before us, must be the wish 
of all who had the privilege of knowing the Reverend 
Samuel S. Mulledy." (Edward Long.) 

From their comparative isolation a local and family 
spirit had long existed among the people of Yorkville, 
and a sincere attachment to their pastors had charac- 
terized the Catholic element. They had looked up with 
reverence and affection to those who had guided their 
souls up to the year 1866, and right well deserved was 
their respect. They might be inclined to murmur at 
times when their little interests had to be sacrificed to 
general good. This is to be expected from poor human 
nature, which is prone to appreciate good according to 
selfish and temporal standards. But there was never 
any disposition to withhold heart-felt loyalty from the 
rulers of the parish. 

The change from the secular to the regular clergy 
gave rise to thoughts and perhaps forebodings. 
Would the newcomers be able to play the Father, the 
Counselor and the Consoler as their predecessors had 
done ? Some few had known the Jesuits in St. Francis 
Xavier's parish, and would give them a warm welcome ; 
but to most of the parishioners of St. Lawrence, the 
Jesuits were only a name. Would they, could they 
take the place of the two dear pastors who had shared 
all their joys and sorrows, their fears and their hopes, 



CONSOLIDATION 55 

their poverty and simplicity for fourteen years, from 
childhood to maturity? It was not to be expected. 
Their separation from home and parents and friends, 
their living in community according to strict rules, 
snapped many ties in the case of religious. Could they 
appreciate the difficulties of their subjects, make allow- 
ance for their faults, be indulgent to weakness, dis- 
criminate under various circumstances like those who 
had passed away? They are not of this world and 
cannot know the world (so some thought) and conse- 
quently must be unpractical and unsympathetic. 

The only notions about the Jesuits that some had 
were derived from non-Catholic sources, and to them 
the transfer of St. Lawrence's parish to Jesuits was a 
doubtful gain. For the Jesuit in Literature, to those 
who do not know him, is a personage to be avoided. 
He is tricky, unscrupulous, a stranger to the truth, 
ready to adopt any means to gain his end, a skilled 
logician who can prove black to be white, and white 
black or any color, one who will sacrifice any thing or 
any body to the interests of his order, whatever they 
may be, and they are sure to be anything but what 
he declares them to be. He has for his motto, "To the 
greater glory of God," and as he is recognized to be a 
stranger to the truth, his real aims must be something 
diametrically opposite. If he had come into existence 
at any other time than the beginning of the sixteenth 
century, or if he had taken the name of his founder, 
like the Benedictine, the Dominican or the Franciscan, 
the Jesuit might have escaped most of the opposition 
and obloquy that has pursued him, though not all ; but 
having the blessed name of Jesus as his religious title 



56 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

he must meet from Hell an opposition such as has fallen 
to the lot of no other religious order. "In the name 
of Jesus every knee shall bow .... under the earth." 
(Phil. II. 10.) Hell has its revenge for the enforced 
homage, nor is the Jesuit unwilling. At his appear- 
ance on the stage of history a fierce battle was on 
against the Church. He threw all his talents, training 
and learning on the side of the Church, won over to 
her many who had deserted her ranks, kept in the fold 
many peoples who were wavering in their allegiance, 
and was never forgiven by her enemies. Calumny was 
used to blacken his character, as an antidote to the 
effectiveness of his teaching, and calumny has followed 
him to the present time, and will follow him as long as 
he is an effective teacher of God's truth. The name of 
Jesus is his glory, but it is at the root of an antagonism 
inspired by Hell. 

Another idea prevalent about the Jesuits, and in ex- 
istence too among Catholics, is that they are all cast in 
the same mold by a thorough and uniform training, 
that they have laid aside, or have had crushed out of 
them by some steam-roller process all individual traits. 
They can have no sympathy or genuine human feeling. 
How could they fill the place made vacant by men who 
were genuinely human and sympathetic, true Fathers? 
It is true that the Jesuits are cast in the same mold, 
the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius; but it is equal- 
ly true that they keep their own individuality as com- 
pletely as any body of men on earth. A Catholic 
publicist, who had travelled extensively over the globe, 
stated recently that there were but two things he had 
found the same everywhere, eggs and Jesuits. And 



CONSOLIDATION 57 

yet, as there are no two eggs perfectly alike, so there 
are no two Jesuits of the same bodily stature, of iden- 
tical temperament or of the same mental make-up. 
Except in the matter of faith and morals, the Jesuits 
are as free as any educated body of men in the world, 
and exercise that freedom to their heart's content. If 
there is anything more than another that the parish- 
ioners of St. Lawrence found out, it is that the Jesuits 
had each his own individuality, generally to the ad- 
miration of their subjects, sometimes not. They were 
all good men, as those who knew them will admit; 
some of them were saintly men, as many are aware. 
Shall we say none of them were saints ? The proposi- 
tion would seem sacrilegious to their admirers. But 
a saint, in the technical sense of the word, implies the 
exercise of all the virtues in a heroic degree. No one 
will seriously set up such a claim for any of those who 
have thus far labored in Yorkville. God alone can 
prove heroic sanctity. It is not enough to have dried 
the tears of sorrow and to replace them with smiles, by 
words of comfort, consolation and hope; nor will it suf- 
fice to banish hunger from the home, or secure means 
of keeping a full larder for the workman's family or the 
destitute widow; it is not enough to bring back the 
prodigal to the home of his eternal Father, or to teach 
one how to overcome temptation or to curb passion, to 
inspire courage in the fight against sin and excite hope 
of certain victory ; nor is it enough to bring peace into 
a divided home, or calm into the soul harassed by doubt 
and scruples; it will not even satisfy to entice the soul 
to higher virtue by the frequent reception of the sacra- 
ments, by the practice of spiritual reading, prayer, 



58 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

meditation or contemplation; nor yet will it satisfy to 
demonstrate to the timid and hesitating soul how sweet 
it is to leave all for God, to deny self, to forego pleas- 
ures, to think of God alone, to sacrifice even spiritual 
joys (the keenest pleasure the soul can know on earth) 
in order to follow Christ in all things and seek the will 
of God alone. These wonders are effected every day 
and everywhere by the power of God and the instru- 
mentality of the Priest. Greater wonders than these 
are produced by the saints, and the greatest of all are 
produced in their own souls. The saint never thinks 
of self, except to contradict self, always thinks of God, 
always labors for God, and yet is always fascinating to 
his neighbor because of his kindliness and devotedness. 
His faith, his hope, his charity are ever in operation; 
his prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance guide his 
words and characterize his actions. 

Those who are indebted, or have been indebted, to 
any of the laborers in this parish for favors or graces, 
temporal or spiritual during the last fifty years, those 
for whom the path of virtue has been made clear and 
smooth will wish (in a spirit of gratitude) to have 
praise bestowed with lavish hand on their benefactors. 
If such desires were to be gratified, this account of the 
growth of St. Lawrence parish would have to be a 
panegyric, not a history. The panegyric will be pro- 
nounced in God's own time when He will say : "Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant." Leaving that 
to God Who will make no mistake, the present duty is 
to chronicle step by step the growth in holiness as well 
as the improvements that have transformed the country 
village into the well-ordered, densely-peopled, richly- 



CONSOLIDATION 59 

housed section of the metropolis of the United States. 
Before proceeding further it is well to record the fol- 
lowing striking reminiscences. They will help us to 
give due credit to the pioneer, and will be interesting 
to the present generation. "By way of preface it 
would be well to picture Yorkville in the days of 1856- 
1864. A village, the most northern habitation being 
about Ninety-Third Street and the southerly about 
Seventy-Eighth Street. Nothing whatever east of 
Second Avenue or west of Fifth Avenue. A few 
stores on Third Avenue between Eighty-First and 
Eighty-Seventh Streets, that Avenue being the great 
White Way of the period ; Central Park was in process 
of completion, the Croton Reservoir an unfinished 
basin; Madison Avenue an unknown quantity and 
Fifth Avenue a dusty roadway lined with shanties 
where the cow, the goat and the goose roamed un- 
molested until such time as their owners needed their 
lives to replenish the family exechequer. 

"The only means of transportation at the time were 
old horse-cars on Third Avenue, and old Stages on 
Second Avenue, the latter having the terminal at 
Eighty-Sixth Street. Shinplaster money was in circu- 
lation and blessed little of that at times. But little evi- 
dence of wealth anywhere, although there were some 
few who had one or two thousand dollars to the good, 
and who were regarded as the financial men of the Vil- 
lage. Very few starched shirts in evidence except on 
Sundays, and then tenderly cared for, since they were 
supposed to do service for at least six or eight succes- 
sive Sundays. 

" 'Knownothingism' was rampant. To be a Cath- 



60 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

olic was regarded as something- akin to being an emis- 
sary of Satan. The Civil War of 1861 took away our 
best blood, and many of the good boys of Yorkville 
left their bleached bones on a Southern battlefield. 

"St. Lawrence's parish took in all the territory be- 
tween the North and East Rivers, Sixty-Ninth and 
Ninety-Sixth Streets. People came in old hacks from 
Bloomingdale, Carmansville, Frogtown, Irishtown, and 
a few other subdivisions. Nationalities flocked, the 
Jews on Second Avenue, the negroes on Seventy- 
Ninth Street, and the Irish in their own little settle- 
ment at Fourth Avenue from Eightieth to Eighty- 
Third Street. Car fare was scarce and the distances 
were long; meat was a comparative luxury; work was 
difficult to obtain, and when secured was of the most 
laborious nature and the compensation exceedingly 
small. Had not a gracious Creator given us limited 
desires, I don't know how we should have pulled 
through. Notwithstanding these hard conditions the 
good people of those days were rich in faith, and per- 
formed their allotted tasks with willing hands, envying 
no one, content to live honestly and in love of God and 
the respect of their fellow man." 

Mr. Edward Long. 

A tradition exists that before his death Father Mul- 
ledy begged the Archbishop to entrust St. Lawrence's 
parish to the Jesuits, just as he himself had been ap- 
pointed to succeed Father Quarter at the latter's dying 
request. Without doubt he would wish to be suc- 
ceeded in his charge by his new-found Brethren ; but 
it is doubtful whether he would take upon himself to 
inaugurate at his last moments a movement to entrust 



CONSOLIDATION 61 

a new parish to a religious order. He had no proprie- 
tary rights over the parish, he had no claim such as 
Father Quarter had as the virtual founder of the 
church, to make any suggestions as to its future ad- 
ministration. He was a recent arrival in the diocese 
himself, and besides he was too reserved in his mind 
and manner to proffer any request as to the future dis- 
posal of the charge which he was about to lay down. 

For years before the Society came to Yorkville, 
Fathers had been visiting and caring for the inmates 
of the Islands in the East River. Father Henry Du 
Ranquet, the Apostle of the Tombs, writing of his 
labors to friends in France, speaks as follows : "When 
we took charge of this work I made the following re- 
mark to Archbishop Hughes, which was highly enter- 
taining to his Grace. 'Other missionaries, ' I said to 
him, 'are like hunters who pursue their game; the mis- 
sion of the Islands is a royal chase; the police officers 
and others beat up the coverts and drive the game in 
Hocks to the missionary.' " The Fathers who had been 
attending the Islands, after laboring hard all day re- 
turned to St. Francis Xavier's at night, as at the be- 
ginning of their ministrations they were not allowed to 
live where they labored. Imagine the hardship of the 
double trip in a slow bus ever} 7 day. without counting 
the intercourse with the offscourings of the city or the 
victims of the most loathsome diseases. Four Priests 
had already died of typhoid fever contracted in Black- 
well's, and it was only after the Fathers were allowed 
to take up their residence permanently on the Islands 
that they could discharge their duties with proper con- 
venience and effectiveness. The first victim of his zeal 



62 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

was Father Jaffre, formerly a missionary in Upper 
Canada. He died within a month; but, nothing 
daunted, three others followed him in his zeal and 
shared his fate in three succeeding years. 1 In 1864 
Blackwell's Island was attended by Fathers Marechal 
and Chapin, Randall's Island by Father Schneider, 
while Ward's Island was visited by a Father from 
Yorkville, a secular Priest. In the following year 
Fathers Henry Du Ranquet and Marechal ministered 
in Blackwell's, and Father Monroe in Randall's Island. 
Before taking charge of St. Lawrence's in the spring 
of 1866, besides one Father to look after Randall's 
Island there were two on the staff of St. Francis 
Xavier's community assigned to work on Blackwell's 
Island while a third was to supplement in case of need 
or accident. Between 1861 and 1865 Father Marechal 
alone administered baptism to more than 1,300 per- 
sons, converts and infants, the latter mostly. 

A much better reason than propinquity to the Islands 
and perhaps the compelling one, for placing Yorkville 
in the care of the Jesuits, was the recent establishment 
of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd on Ninetieth 
Street and the East River. What with confessions for 
the Sisters, Magdalens, Penitents and the Perseverance 
class, daily Mass and frequent instructions, catechism 
classes and exhortations, it would be impossible for the 
local clergy to give proper attention to the parish and 
the House of the Good Shepherd. For two years the 
Redemptorists from their house on Third Street were 
Chaplains, but with such inconvenience to themselves 
and their regular duties in their own church that they 

^Father Pardow. in the Woodstock Letters, 1874, p. 175. 



CONSOLIDATION 63 

were forced to ask to be relieved. For a time the 
Chaplain of St. Joseph's Orphan Asylum on Eighty- 
Ninth Street and Avenue A attempted to minister to 
the Good Shepherd too. He was near enough locally 
to escape the inconvenience of a long journey in prim- 
itive conditions of travel; but he could not well satisfy 
the desires and requirements of both institutions. The 
Jesuits were next called upon to minister to the com- 
munity at Ninetieth Street as they had shown them- 
selves willing to serve on extraordinary occasions and 
for work usually performed by Jesuits. 

Miss Katherine E. Conway in her work "In the Foot- 
prints of the Good Shepherd," p. 81, tells us : "About 
this time the Jesuit Fathers began their devoted services 
to the Good Shepherd, giving the annual retreats to the 
community and the classes gratuitously; serving as 
confessors to the entire establishment, and offering 
Mass once or twice a week." In the Province Catalogue 
we find some one from St. Francis Xavier's appointed 
as regular confessor to the House of the Good Shep- 
herd. In those days it was a long and tedious trip 
from Fifteenth Street to Ninetieth with a cross-coun- 
try walk to the East River. The economy of time for 
laborers on the Islands and at the Good Shepherd to 
have their residence on Eighty-Fourth Street rather 
than on Fifteenth Street was obvious to the Arch- 
bishop; and so the parish of St. Lawrence was trans- 
ferred to the Society. Miss Conway in her work 
already quoted remarks, p. 93. "From 1866, the 
Spiritual needs of the convent and Home were well 
supplied. In that year, the Archbishop gave the par- 
ish of St. Lawrence, Yorkville, to the Jesuit Fathers, 



64 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

and with it, the Spiritual care of the Good Shepherd. 
Already the community were deeply in the debt of the 
devoted sons of St. Ignatius who had so disinterestedly 
served them since 1860. Midnight Mass for many 
Christmases in succession, annual retreats for the com- 
munity and the various classes, conferences, etc., all 
were cheerfully given at the cost of many hardships 
incident to the location of the house, which in those 
old days had no regular roads leading to it." 

Here is a good and sufficient explanation for the 
transfer of the parish, — economy of time and labor for 
those who had to make a long journey to reach the 
scene of their apostolate, the Islands and the Good 
Shepherd. Living at Eighty-Fourth Street they would 
be comparatively near both places and could almost 
double their efficiency by eliminating almost all the 
time lost in reaching their destination. The work in 
the parish could be attended to during the week by one 
man while the necessary increase of laborers for the 
new duties would allow increased facilities for confes- 
sions, and greater solemnity on feast days at Mass and 
Vespers, not to mention Sunday School and Sodalities. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Transition. 

From the time of Father Mulledy's death, his curate, 
Father Hassan, administered the parish, with whatever 
assistance he could procure, up to the time of the advent 
of the Jesuits. This was on March 8th, 1866. As all 
offices had been distributed in the month of August, 
and each member had his own assigned duty, the task 
of running the parish had necessarily to be a make- 
shift. The superior gave up to the new work those 
men who would be least missed in their present appoint- 
ments. The Rector of St. Francis Xavier's, Father 
Loyzance, was accountable to the Archbishop for the 
due discharge of parochial offices. As he could not 
take charge in person, he had to call on the Superior 
of the Mission for aid. Father Tellier, president at 
Fordham, picked out from that community the first 
laborer in the new parish. This was Father Victor 
Beaudevin, Assistant in the parish church at Fordham. 
As there were many Priests in the community, both 
as officials and professors in the Seminary and College, 
as well as four Fathers yet students of theology, it was 
found possible to conduct the affairs of the Fordham 
parish for a time by the aid of those engaged in other 
duties. Distributed among fifteen Priests the new bur- 
den would not be much of a hardship to any single 
person. Next Father Petitdemange (or Petit as he 
was called and signed himself), Minister of the Sem- 



66 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

inary and Pastor of the Church, was spared to aid 
Father Beaudevin. Later on in the year, Father 
Ouellet lately released from the army, and resting some- 
what from his strenuous duties on the battlefield or in 
the camps, was spared from St. Francis Xavier's to help 
the Priests at St. Lawrence's. His work was light, 
save where he had to supply the place of either of the 
two Fathers on the mission at Blackwell's Island. These 
two Fathers, Henry Du Ranquet and James Sherlock, 
continued to serve while attached to St. Francis 
Xavier's. The latter also attended to the commnuity 
and inmates of the Good Shepherd. 

The change from the service of Irish born, or Irish 
blood, to French-speaking priests emphasized the shock 
of passing from the care of secular clergy to that of 
religious. They were so different that at first it was 
not easy to get accustomed to the transition. They 
were certainly different in manner though not in spirit. 
The language and accent were different, the reserve 
was of a different kind from the dignified aloofness of 
Father Mulledy; yet, though the parish never grew 
accustomed to the aloofness of Father Beaudevin or the 
strict disciplinarian spirit of Father Ouellet, once the 
administrator of Yorkville in 1852, it is safe to say that 
Father Petit, when he became known, won to himself 
affection as tender as was ever extended to any of his 
predecessors. This is true particularly of the children 
for whom Father Petit had a special predilection. This 
good and holy Father returned later to work in York- 
ville, and endeared himself still more to those who 
knew him. His confessional near the door was crowd- 
ed every Saturday night, especially by young men who 



TRANSITION 67 

went to him, not merely because he was near the door, 
but because he was ever the same, ever patient, ever 
kind, ever unassuming. He ended his days at St. 
Peter's Church, Jersey City, and almost without any 
sickness, without pain, slipped away as silently as he 
had lived, without trouble to any one, with the smile of 
an innocent child on his lips, as if he had just heard 
of some noble or charitable deed. He died Nov. 2nd, 
1903, and is buried in the graveyard of Fordham Uni- 
versity. 

On Thursday, March 8th, 1866, Father Beaudevin, 
as temporary Superior of the parish, relieved Father 
Hassan of the charge which he had held since the 
death of Father Mulledy. He began that very evening 
by conducting the Lenten devotions which he found 
well attended, some, perhaps, attracted by curiosity to 
see the new Pastor, most to continue in the path which 
they had profitably trod under his predecessors. "On 
Sunday, 11th," he tells us, "the church was full at 10 
o'clock. The people seem well pleased at the coming 
of the Fathers. On that day we could commence to 
follow our regular practices, as we were alone by our- 
selves in the house. Everything seems to go on well so 
far. Let us hope that God in his mercy will prosper 
us and will enable us to do good." 

Apparently Father Hassan had remained to intro- 
duce the Fathers, and to show them everything that 
strangers would require to know about the church, 
the sacristy and the running of the parish. "We 
found the church, and everything connected with it in 
very good order. The house is somewhat small but 
comfortable. The furniture both in the church and 



68 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

house is in a good condition." There were then two 
Fathers and two Brothers, a sacristan and a cook, in 
the house. When Father Petitdemange came on the 
19th, after turning over his charge of Minister at 
Fordham to his successor, the house must indeed have 
appeared small and contracted when compared with 
the more spacious quarters at Fordham and St. Fran- 
cis Xavier's, particularly if they gave up one of their 
largest rooms for the purpose of a Domestic Chapel. 
However, even after the number in the community 
was still further increased, they managed to live in 
contentment. Nay, they set apart a place for 
an incipient library which is a necessary adjunct to 
every Jesuit house, as the members have no private 
collection of books to be kept in each individual's room. 
A librarian was soon appointed who got together the 
nucleus of our present library. 

Father Beaudevin, who did the major part of the 
work for the first few months of our occupation, was 
born in Paris, November 25th, 1823. He made his 
theological studies in Fordham and was ordained there 
May 25th, 1850. He taught mathematics for about 
four years. Becoming dissatisfied, he left the Society 
in 1854. He was received into the newly established 
diocese of Newark and, being held in the highest es- 
teem by Bishop Bayley, he was appointed Secretary 
and Chancellor for four years, 1857 to 1861, and 
Pastor of St. John's Church, Paterson. Readmitted 
to the Society, he went to Canada for his Novitiate 
and in 1863 became Prefect of Studies in St. Mary's 
College, Montreal, for two years. In 1865-6 he did 
parochial work in Fordham whence he came to St. 



TRANSITION 69 

Lawrence to fill out the year, March to August, 1866. 
From here he was sent to St. Francis Xavier's for 
ministerial duties, and in April, 1871, took charge of 
St. Peter's Church, Jersey City, which Bishop Bayley 
was desirous of placing under the care of the Jesuits 
with probably a preference for his friend Father Beau- 
devin. He was recalled to Fordham for two years to 
fill the post of Procurator. In 1876 he was sent to 
Canada where he ended his days in 1891. 

A sketch of the life of Father Ouellet has already 
been given. 

These three Frenchmen with their own traditions, 
their own well fixed ideas, found a people of entirely 
different antecedents, a people who had made untold 
sacrifices for the faith, and who now, perhaps, con- 
sidered themselves entitled to a rest. They were not 
as quick as the enthusiastic Gaul might desire, in mak- 
ing response to the fervid spirit of their new guides. 
If these men had remained longer than a few months 
they would, without doubt, have been just as much 
appreciated as those who had gone before them. He 
who remained longer certainly won a place in the 
hearts of those who knew him which could not easily 
be filled. When the midsummer changes were made in 
the New York and Canada Mission of the Champagne 
Province, St. Lawrence, Yorkville, received its staff, 
though not a separate Superior. The community of five 
Fathers and two Brothers was regarded as a part of 
that of St. Francis Xavier's, subject to the Rector of 
St. Francis, Father Loyzance, but directed by a Minis- 
ter resident in Yorkville. Of course, the Rector of St. 
Francis could give no personal attention to the affairs 



70 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

of Yorkville, and could not interfere in matters of mo- 
ment or of doubt which did not require the cognizance 
of the Superior of the Mission. The Minister of the 
house was Father Francis Marechal in charge of the 
parish, assisted by Father Michael Meagher with 
Father Petit, who also took charge of Randall's Island 
and the Sisters of Good Shepherd. Father Achard 
and Henry du Ranquet were engaged at Blackwell's 
Island. Two Brothers lent their aid, James Early as 
cook and Philip Ledore as porter and sacristan. 

Father Marechal (written Marshall in the Baptismal 
Register) began his ministrations by baptizing a child 
on August 14th, 1866. On the 15th there are two 
Baptisms recorded by Father Beaudevin, probably ar- 
ranged for before the change. After this date he dis- 
appears from the records of the parish, to labor else- 
where as we have seen. The major part of the work 
fell to the lot of Fathers Marechal and Meagher, as the 
two Fathers engaged on Blackwell's Island had their 
hands full with their own peculiar ministration. 
Father Petit assisted in baptizing, but could not be re- 
lied on to do regular sick-call work, as he was liable 
to be called at any moment to Randall's Island, and had 
to spend a considerable time each week at the Convent 
of the Good Shepherd. Some aid was given for three 
months in autumn by Father Belanger, a transient 
guest, who arrived from Canada towards the end of 
August. Still with school, sodalities, sick calls, con- 
fessions of the laity, and of the Sisters of Charity in the 
case of Father Meagher, with Bona Mors and preach- 
ing every week, they were kept busy enough. As both 
were hardy men, they could meet every requirement. 



TRANSITION 71 

Father Meagher was an Irishman, born on May 31st, 
1829. He entered the Society in 1855 and after a 
brief course of studies he was ordained, and was em- 
ployed in the ministry at St. Francis Xavier's Church 
for two years before being transferred to this field of 
labor. He spent but one year amongst us, as he was 
summoned to Rome to make his second novitiate or 
Third Year of Probation there. He never came back 
to the province. He was made Pastor of St. Colum- 
ba's church, Nashville, Tenn., where he died a martyr 
of Charity in the yellow fever epidemic of 1878. 

At the annual distribution of offices in July, 1867, 
Father Petit was recalled to his old post of parish 
worker at Fordham with charge of Spuyten Duyvil 
superadded, to return later, however, for a more ex- 
tended stay. Father John McQuaid was appointed 
Minister, while the more laborious duties fell to the lot 
of Father Marechal as the most robust member of the 
community. Father Achard continued his labors on 
Blackwell's Island and as confessor to the Good Shep- 
herd nuns and their charge. Though Father du Ran- 
quet remained working for many more years on the 
Islands, he is no longer attached to the community of 
St. Lawrence, but to Saint Francis Xavier's. 

Scarcely had Father McQuaid taken charge of the 
parish before its boundaries were officially contracted 
by the establishment of another centre of spiritual 
activity on our southern border, which took away part 
of our territory. The district was still sparsely settled, 
but the population was moving in our direction, and 
would soon fill up the section below us on the south 
and east. To make provision for the future and give 



72 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

relief at the present to some, the Archbishop concluded 
in the summer of 1867 to establish a new parish be- 
tween St. John's and Yorkville. It was entrusted to 
the Dominican Fathers who, as yet, had no residence in 
New York. The parish was organized in August, 
1867, and the corner stone of the new Church was laid 
by Archbishop McGoskey on November 10th, 1867. 
Saint Vincent Ferrer, the great Dominican preacher 
and missionary, was chosen patron. The territory 
below the central line of Seventy-Fifth Street was 
ceded to the Dominican Fathers while what lay north 
of that line remained under the care of the Jesuits. 
The territory continued unchanged for near thirteen 
years. St. Vincent Ferrer's was the first daughter 
parish of St. Lawrence's. 

One may notice at this time a little straw showing 
a breeze blowing from a new direction. In the Cata- 
logue of the Province of Champagne, to which the 
Mission of New York and Canada had been attached, 
the houses of Canada had been given always a place 
before those of New York, a precedence demanded by 
the language of Canada and the greater number of 
Catholics in Canada than in New York. However, 
though the numbers engaged on the Canada Mission 
were greater than those in New York, priority in place 
is given to New York owing to the rapid growth of our 
work in the States. It speaks well for the broadness 
of mind of the Fathers in Amiens to recognize the 
youthful promise of the Empire State. This little 
breeze will soon gain strength and become a gale in 
the next generation. 

In the next year Father Glackmeyer came to St. 



TRANSITION 73 

Lawrence as Minister in place of Father John Mc- 
Quaid who was given charge of the Parish of Ford- 
ham. As Father McQuaid does not again appear on 
the staff of Yorkville a few words about him may not 
be unacceptable. 

Father John McQuaid was born on the 6th of Sep- 
tember, 1826, in the parish of Donagh, County Mon- 
aghan, Ireland; was educated in the school of his native 
parish, made his classical studies in the school of Mr. 
Moones in the town of Monoghan and in the seminary 
of the Archdiocese of Armagh. From there he went to 
Maynooth and finished his course of Theology. Instead 
of taking Holy Orders he applied for admission 
to the Society of Jesus, made his novitiate of 
two years, and was sent to Laval where he 
reviewed his whole course of Theology. Be- 
ing destined for the New York and Canada Mission, 
then attached to the province of France, he got leave 
to visit Ireland on his way to New York, and was or- 
dained priest at All Hallows in Dublin in 1859. After 
teaching some time in St. Francis Xavier's he was em- 
ployed in parochial work in Troy, Canada and Ford- 
ham before coming to Yorkville. When Bishop Bay- 
ley gave St. Peter's Church, Jersey City, to the Jesuits, 
Father McQuaid received a post under Father Beau- 
devin, succeeded him as pastor, and erected St. Peter's 
College, of which he was Rector for eight years. The 
last active years of his life were spent at Troy, as su- 
perior. When no longer fit for arduous work he was 
appointed Spiritual Father at Holy Cross College, 
Worcester, Mass., and filled the same post in Boston 
for the last three years of his life. He died there on 



74 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

the 8th of April, 1904. He was slight in build, wiry, 
active, energetic, florid of complexion, with thin white 
hair. He retained to the end a strong tinge of his na- 
tive accent, and had a rapid utterance with frequent 
repetition of some of his words for emphasis. He had 
a clear mind, was a good business man and a better 
theologian. His opinion in Moral Theology was 
looked upon as final in the discussion of cases. His 
honesty and straightforwardness, his unselfishness and 
charity won him universal esteem. His experience and 
his uniform cheerfulness made him a very entertain- 
ing companion in recreation. There were no dark 
sides to his pictures of life, or he hid them carefully 
from others. 

The staff of 1869 consisted of Father Glackmeyer as 
Minister aided by Father Achard and Father Marechal, 
the first and the last doing the heavy portion of the 
work, while Father Achard attended to Randall's Is- 
land and the Good Shepherd convent. The ordinary 
routine of parish work and growth offers very little 
that is sensational, though the priests engaged meet 
with tragedies and comedies enough. These are 
buried ordinarily, like the secret of the confessional, in 
the breast of the Priest, and but seldom come to the 
notice of the public. Such incidents have no place in 
a parish history. On the other hand, the silent, sacred 
work of the Sacraments is making itself felt in the 
souls of young and old, often times unnoticed by the 
beneficiaries, save where, once in a while, it leads to 
some unobtrusive heroism, discovered by the Priest, 
and recognized by the subject as a supernatural force 
coming direct from God. The silent workings of 



TRANSITION 75 

grace will be manifested in their fullness on the day of 
judgment alone. The signs of the neglect of grace 
and the sacraments need not be pointed out. They are 
too evident everywhere and always, as tares amid the 
wheat. 

Father Loyzance, Rector of St. Francis Xavier's 
College, and accountable for the work in Yorkville, 
though sufficiently burdened with his duties in Fif- 
teenth Street, did not lose interest in his minor charge 
here. He was a practical man, and knew that the par- 
ish could not be properly built up without a good 
school, and one large enough to house the growing 
population of children. The only school for the boys 
and girls of the parish was the little, original wooden 
church which had been divided into two rooms by a 
partition not high enough to reach the ceiling. Com- 
pared with the public schools as they then existed, poor 
as they were, ours must have made many a child blush 
with shame, and must have roused in many a desire to 
frequent a more pretentious building, and have served 
to keep away from us many another who needed the 
careful instruction of the Sisters. 

To remedy this state of affairs, Father Loyzance had 
the wooden schoolhouse, our quondam church, de- 
molished in April, 1868, and a new building of brick 
erected in its place. By April, 1869, the work was 
finished. The new school was of about 76 feet front- 
age, having a depth of 40 feet with a good sized yard 
in the rear. There was practically a loss of a school 
year, but the loss proved a gain in the end, as all were 
well satisfied, and the number of pupils increased rap- 
idly. The cost of construction and furniture amounted 



76 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

to 20,600 dollars, no slight addition to the debt on the 
church. The congregation bore the burden bravely. 
The school was ample for our needs for almost forty 
years. It is fitting to pay tribute to Father Loyzance 
for his initiative. The inauguration of the School was 
among the last acts of his administration. When he 
left St. Francis Xavier's, the Fathers here ceased to 
be dependent on the larger and older community. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Expansion. 

Owing to the fact that the greater number of Jesuits 
are engaged in the occupation of teaching, and that the 
Scholastics so employed must return to the House of 
Studies for their course of theology in preparation for 
the priesthood, many changes are necessary every year 
in the staff of the colleges. Some leave after five 
years of teaching, others return on the completion of 
their course. Some retire for a year for what is 
called the Third Probation or third year of novitiate, 
and others who have completed that term resume col- 
lege activities. As these changes must be made to 
accommodate the school year, there is much coming 
and going every summer, for the change of one single 
man may entail in certain cases the shifting of two or 
three others. Parish priests are occasionally affected 
by these necessities in the corps of teachers, and they, 
too, have to be shifted at times. Something of this 
has been apparent in the laborers at St. Lawrence's in 
the account thus far given. Because transfers are an- 
nounced on the feast of St. Ignatius, July 31st, and are 
usually effected in the first week of August, it will make 
for clearness to accommodate our chronicle of the par- 
ish to the scholastic, rather than to the civil or ecclesi- 
astical or financial year. Hereafter, then, the annual 
account will relate to events between August 1st and 
July 31st. 



78 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

July 31st, 1869, is a date memorable in Jesuit his- 
tory in New York. The Mission of New York and 
Canada had grown to such proportions that it was 
deemed sufficiently developed to travel by itself with- 
out further aid from the province of Champagne, to 
which it had been attached since the origin of Cham- 
pagne, as a separate Province. The breeze is blowing 
stronger. The two sections of the Mission contained 
at the beginning of the year just 250 members engaged 
in three successful colleges, a Novitiate and several 
flourishing residences, amongst which St. Lawrence's, 
both in actual work and in future results, was the most 
promising. The saintly Father Bapst, a confessor of 
the faith, victim of sectarian bigotry in Ellsworth, 
Maine, was appointed the first General Superior of the 
Mission. His virtue, kindness, experience in affairs, 
made him a model director for the new Mission. His 
escape with his life from persecution in his native 
Switzerland, his escape with his life from fanatics in 
Maine, who tarred and feathered him for daring to 
administer the Sacraments to his flock in a free coun- 
try, secured the veneration of his subjects, a veneration 
enhanced by his own lovable nature and his strong faith 
and solid virtue. 

His first move affecting St. Lawrence's was to make 
it an independent Residence with a Superior of its own, 
acknowledging no dependence on any other house, but 
only on the Superior of the Mission. Father Moylan, 
late Rector at Fordham, and for a year Director of the 
School of St. Francis Xavier, was transferred to York- 
ville on July 17th and was appointed first Superior on 
the feast of St. Ignatius, the very day Father Bapst 



EXPANSION 79 

took office, perhaps the very first appointment in the 
new Mission. Father Achard left for a time, but 
Father Holzer came in December to fill up the number, 
and take charge of the Sisters of Mercy, who had re- 
course to our ministry for the first time. They took 
possession of St. Joseph's, Eighty-First Street and 
Madison Avenue, September 9th, 1869. Among 
Father Moylan's first acts was the adding of a fourth 
Mass on Sundays to better accommodate the growing 
parish. 

A third lay Brother was sent to assist in the running 
of the house, so that the resident community numbered 
seven, the largest roster thus far in the history of the 
establishment. Five Priests labored on the Island, 
but they were attached to St. Francis Xavier's, not to 
Yorkville. Father Moylan took personal charge of the 
parochial school. Hereafter one of the Fathers is prin- 
cipal of the school, or director after the office of prin- 
cipal was made over to a Sister of Charity. In the 
regular ministrations of the parish the larger portion 
fell to the lot of the Superior, Father Moylan, who, in 
addition to taking care of the school, did more than his 
share of baptizing with a due proportion of sick calls 
and preaching. Father Marechal, owing to his charge 
at the Good Shepherd, was not so much felt in the par- 
ish as Father Glackmeyer who was a good second to 
Father Moylan. Father Holzer's work was lighter, 
but he was an invalid. 

After the 15th of July, Father Marechal's name does 
not appear again on the Register. Among the annual 
changes his transfer from Yorkville to Chatham, On- 
tario, is recorded. He was first Minister and had 



80 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

worked strenuously here as he had done in Blackwell's 
Island from 1861 to 1866. While here he used chil- 
dren a good deal to find an entrance to homes and to 
conciliate parents. On meeting the little ones on the 
street he would inquire the name, residence, school and 
every other bit of information that might prove useful 
afterwards. As he was genial, kindly and sympa- 
thetic, children were attracted to him, and felt honored 
in being addressed by him, and poured out willingly 
their little store of family facts. With all this in mind 
lie would appear casually, as it were, before the homes 
of these children, and would little by little ingratiate 
himself with the parents, and find out their spiritual 
condition, and bring the negligent Catholics back to 
their duties, to Mass and the sacraments. He knew no 
human respect where there was question of the spirit- 
ual good of a soul. He would wander into a Public 
School and after breaking the ice and making the 
teacher feel at home by his interest in the children and 
his genial ways, he would ask boldly who among the 
Catholic pupils had made their First Communion, who 
had not, who were regular in attendance at Mass, who 
took a holiday from church on Sundays. All this in- 
formation he stored up in his memory for future use 
in his visits to their parents. It is said of him that 
once in sauntering around the wide confines of the par- 
ish he found a conventual building which was un- 
known to him. In his desire to find a new centre of 
good he rang the bell, was ushered into a parlor, met 
the superioress and was shown over the house with 
much good will. The superioress was delighted to 
have to record a visit from a priest and a Jesuit. She 



EXPANSION 81 

was a Protestant. Father Marechal was amused, but 
did not repeat the call. 

Father Francis Marechal was born March 4th, 1826, 
at St. Cassin in the diocese of Chambery, Savoy, 
France. In 1852 he entered the Society at Angers. 
As he had made most of his studies as a Seminarian, 
he was sent to Fordham to complete his theology in 
1854 at the end of his novitiate. After the completion 
of his course and his ordination he labored for three 
years at Guelph, Ontario, from 1857 to 1860. With 
the exception of the year 1866-1867 when he made his 
Third Probation at Montreal, he was attached to St. 
Francis Xavier's until he came to St. Lawrence's. His 
labors during- these years on Blackwell's Island have 
been already mentioned. After leaving Yorkville his 
chief post of duty was in Troy. He was on his way 
from there to return once more to Blackwell's Island 
when he lost his life in a rear-end collision of trains at 
Spuyten Duyvil, on January 13th, 1882. His remains 
were burned to a crisp, , but identification was made 
possible through his Breviary. Needless to say his 
friends in Yorkville were filled with horror at his sad 
fate. 

A very important step in the administration of the 
Mission in the summer of 1870 was the establishment 
of a missionary band in New York. If Priests wished 
to have a mission given in their churches by Jesuits, 
they had to apply in Chicago to the Superior of the 
Missionary band there, who answered the call if he 
could, but often he had to refuse, owing to more urgent 
claims nearer home. The fruits gathered from these 
missions were so evident that, as a matter of zeal. Father 



82 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Bapst was moved to make sacrifices in other work in 
order to answer calls for missions around the city. He 
appointed four Fathers to devote their time and talents 
to this valuable occupation. Most prominent amongst 
them was Father Glackmeyer, fitted by endowments 
physical and mental to realize the hopes of his superiors. 
He had spent two strenuous and profitable years at St. 
Lawrence's, and was now promoted to a wider field 
which he continued to cultivate until overtaken by the 
hand of death, May 7th, 1881. Who can measure the 
good he did in this field in ten years with his physical 
strength, his eloquence and his zeal? 

Father Glackmeyer was born in Montreal, Septem- 
ber 29th, 1826, and died in Philadelphia, May 7th, 
1881. He belonged to a respectable family of Hes- 
sian origin. One of his brothers was for years city 
clerk of Montreal. At the age of nineteen he entered 
the Society of Jesus and made his novitiate in his na- 
tive city. In 1847 he was sent to Fordham, where he 
remained for the next nine years, partly engaged in 
private study, but chiefly as a disciplinarian and 
teacher. This was followed by four years in the study 
of theology at Laval. When he returned to this coun- 
try in 1860, he became prefect of discipline and pro- 
fessor of philosophy at St. Francis Xavier's, New- 
York. The following year he made his tertianship at 
Frederick, Md., and on the completion of his Third 
Year of Probation he taught humanities for two years 
at St. Mary's, Montreal. From 1864 to 1868 he was 
vice-president at Fordham, and in the latter year was 
appointed Minister at the Church of St. Lawrence, 
now St. Ignatius, Yorkville. Two years later he was 



EXPANSION 83 

assigned to the missionary band, and for the last eleven 
years of his life devoted himself unremittingly to the 
work of giving missions throughout the Eastern States. 
He was a man of fine presence, was remarkably elo- 
quent, and possessed a voice of wonderful charm which 
he knew how to use effectively both in singing and 
speaking. 

Mr. Thos. B. Connery, a student of Fordham in 
Father Glackmeyer's time, writes of him in the Ford- 
ham Monthly as follows: "That which I remember 
most distinctly about Father Glackmeyer was his rare 
gift of charming the young people. As prefect and 
teacher before his ordination there was not a boy who 
did not love and respect him. And then afterwards, 
when he became a Priest and was pastor or curate of 
St. Lawrence's, in Eighty-Fourth Street, I observed 
in him the same delightful faculty of captivating the 
little ones by his unstudied talks to them from the altar 
at the children's Masses, to which I was glad to go in 
order to share the pleasure which he conferred upon 
the boys and girls. It seems a small thing to dwell 
upon, this power of a Priest or teacher to fascinate 
young pupils, so that they will listen with rapt attention 
to religious instruction, yet it is one of the rarest quali- 
ties in teachers of any class." 

In place of Fathers Marechal and Glackmeyer came 
in August, 1871, Father Gockeln and the venerable 
Father Thebaud, another ex-Rector of Fordham. The 
most important fact in the annals of the parish for this 
year is a Mission given by two Fathers of the Missouri 
Province, Fathers Damen and Busschaert. If for no 
other reason, the establishment of a Missionary band 



84 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

in New York would suggest to Father Moylan the pro- 
curing for his own parish of those benefits which supe- 
riors intended to confer on the Churches of the East 
by appointing four Fathers to give missions wherever 
invited. On the principle that "No one is a prophet 
in his own country". Father Moylan did not call on 
Father Glackmeyer and others almost as well 
known, but applied to the great Father Damen 
of Chicago, already famous hereabouts as a 
successful giver of missions. The mission began 
on March the 1:2th, the concluding day of the Novena 
of Grace, and lasted until the 26th. Besides reconcil- 
ing to God many who had neglected their duty, the Mis- 
sionaries brought back to the Church three Apostates 
and converted 22 Protestants. Clearly the old time 
bigotry, which some elders mention as disturbing the 
harmony of our locality, was on the wane, and the ex- 
ample of so many joining the Church from the sects 
was sure to be followed in succeeding years by many 
others. The anticipation has been fully realized, not 
only in times of Missions, but at frequent intervals 
during every year and in growing numbers from that 
time to this. 

If we consult the Record of Baptisms, the most ac- 
tive in parish work were the two ex-Rectors of Ford- 
ham, Fathers Moylan and Thebaud. There was no 
dampening of their zeal during their terms of office. 
Confessions and catechetical instructions occcupied the 
time of Fathers Holzer and Gockeln. 

Father Moylan' s nervous activity and aggressive- 
ness were productive of many benefits to the parish dur- 
ing the two years of his incumbency. Besides the 



EXPANSION 85 

mission mentioned above and the addition of a fifth 
Mass in April, 1871, he paid off in two instalments 
twenty thousand dollars, bringing the debt of the parish 
from fifty-four thousand to thirty-four thousand. He 
was able in January, 1870, to get exemption from taxa- 
tion for the residence as held under the charter of St. 
Francis Xavier's College, with remission of amounts 
paid from 1866 to 1869. The taxes of 1863 had not 
been paid, and the house was sold in 1867, and had to 
be bought back for a nominal sum, 164.72 dollars, but 
the taxes of 1864 and 1865 were paid in full. Evidently 
Father Mulledy was not a man for business pursuits. 
Father Moylan obtained, too, exemption from the as- 
sessments for the church, residence and Academy due 
to the opening of Madison Avenue, and the laying 
down of a sewer along Fifth Avenue, Seventy-Fourth 
Street, Eighty-Third Street and Eighty-Fourth Street. 
The total exemption was 3,111 dollars. This was in 
September, 1870. He opened an additional class in the 
girls' school, and increased the number of teachers from 
four to five Sisters. He had already, in December, 
1870, added two classes for boys over nine years of 
age, and entrusted their training to two lay teachers. 
This raised the average attendance from 300 to 400 
pupils in all. Finally he opened a Latin school for boys, 
under a secular gentleman. Twenty pupils presented 
themselves in the beginning, but, as the study entailed 
serious application, the number dwindled down to 
eight by the end of the year. The class was allowed 
after July "to die a silent death." For the school, as 
well as for the parish at large, he devoted a room on 
the top floor of the schoolhouse to library purposes, 



86 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

and collected about 700 books, a small but promising 
beginning. If all had been as faithful in recording 
the activities of the parish as Father Moylan, the writ- 
ing of the history of the parish would be an easy task. 
"Father Moylan, the first Jesuit Superior of St. 
Lawrence's parish, was born at Armagh, Ireland, June 
24th, 1822. At an early age he came to America, 
made his classical studies and taught a class for two 
years at Nicolet, and studied theology in the college 
and seminary of Quebec. After ordination as a secu- 
lar priest, he labored for some years among the In- 
dians and fishermen of Cape Gaspe on the shores of the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. He entered the Society of 
Jesus November 14th, 1851. His first assignment 
was to the College of St. Francis Xavier, N. Y., 
where he taught from 1852 to 1854. This was fol- 
lowed by a year of teaching at St. John's College, 
Fordham, after which he took up the work of the min- 
istry in the parish of St. Francis Xaxier, N. Y. With 
the exception of one year spent in teaching Rhetoric 
in the College of Santa Clara, California, he remained 
at the Church of St. Francis Xavier until 1864, when 
he was sent for his Third Probation to Laon, France. 
On his return he was stationed for a short time at Troy, 
N. Y. He was appointed president of St. John's Col- 
lege, Fordham, December 15th, 1865, and upon his re- 
tirement in May, 1868, resumed the work of the minis- 
try at St. Francis Xavier's. On July 31st, 1869, he 
became Superior and pastor of St. Lawrence's Church, 
Eighty-Fourth Street, New York, and two years later 
was sent to Montreal, where he held the post of English 
preacher at the Gesu for five years, attracting atten- 



EXPANSION 87 

tion by his solid and eloquent discourses. From Can- 
ada he came back to the States in 1876, and during his 
remaining years was engaged in parish work in New 
York and Jersey City. In September, 1890, he retired 
to Fordham, where he died peacefully, January 14th, 
1891. 1 

In the history of St. John's College, Fordham, Mr. 
Taaffe, the historian, characterizes him as follows: 
"Father Moylan was in many respects a remarkable 
man. His ability as a teacher was well-known, and he 
was ranked among the foremost preachers of the time, 
the vigor and eloquence of his sermons having won for 
him, years before, an enviable position among the pul- 
pit orators of the day. His appointment was a source 
of great pleasure to Archbishop Hughes (?) who es- 
teemed him very highly. He was austere, stern, and 
rigorous in the discharge of his duties, whatever they 
might be or wherever they might call him. He had an 
oddity of manner that amounted almost to eccentricity, 
but he was conscientious to the last degree, and never 
once swerved a hair's breadth from the straight and 
narrow way he had laid out for himself. He was no 
timeserver, and rich and poor, high and low were all 
the same to him. His whole life was a model of firm- 
ness and consistency. The virtues that he preached 
from the altar and inculcated in the confessional he de- 
votedly practised in his private life. He was sharp 
and somewhat irritable in manner, but beneath his 
brusque exterior there beat a true and kindly heart." 

His work of predilection seems to have been care for 
the children in the parochial school as well as in the 

iffistorical Records and Studies, Vol. V., P. 184. 



88 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Sunday school. Curiously enough, one of those who 
attracted his attention in the Sunday School was a 
cousin to Rev. Eugene O'Reilly, the founder of the 
parish. He was a bright promising boy of fourteen 
when he was unfortunately killed by being run over by 
railroad cars at Elizabeth, New Jersey. 

A contest of interest between helpless and abandoned 
children on the one side, and his own school children 
took place in the heart of Father Moylan in November, 
1870. He was asked to favor a bazaar in aid of the 
Foundling Hospital conducted by the Sisters of Char- 
ity, and to give up the school for that purpose for the 
space of two weeks. The sacrifice of so much time in 
the very best season of the school year was no slight 
one, and made him pause ; yet he concluded to make the 
sacrifice and suspend classes for the time. Evidently the 
parish endorsed his decision. The people turned 
themselves with a will to decorate the hall, and to do 
everything to make the bazaar a success. In this they 
were not disappointed. Father Moylan turned over 
to the Sisters of Charity the goodly sum of 3,250 dol- 
lars. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Division. 

Wtih Father Moylan, in August, 1871, retired from 
us Father Augustus Thebaud, a scholar and gentleman 
of the old French school. He was born in Brittany, 
France, in 1807, entered the Society in 1835 and 
was sent on the American Mission in Kentucky. Early 
in life he was made Rector of the College of St. 
Mary's, and on the transfer of the community, at the 
request of Bishop Hughes, to Fordham, he succeeded 
Archbishop McCloskey as Rector of the College there. 
He left for a time for other labors, but soon returned 
for one more term of office in Fordham. After re- 
tiring from Yorkville he was sent to take charge of a 
church in Hudson City, N. Y. The remainder of his 
days he spent in Troy and at St. Francis Xavier's. 
He found time to write some important works, as "The 
Irish Race," "Gentilism," "The Church and the Gen- 
tile World," 3 Vols., "The Church and the Moral 
World," "Reminiscences," in manuscript, 2 vols. He 
died at Fordham, December 17th, 1685. 

Of the staff under Father Gockeln in the years 1871- 
1872, Father Archambault was the most active after 
his superior. He had charge of the young men's 
Sodality and the Bona Mors association, two duties 
usually confided to the same man. He performed the 
greater number of the Baptisms. Father Gockeln 
kept the school for his own supervision, and directed 

89 



90 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

the Ladies Sodalities, Senior and Junior. He shows a 
partiality for the work of instructing and receiving 
converts, who were probably attracted to his majestic, 
but kindly, ways. Father Holzer continued his care 
of the Sisters of Mercy and their orphans, while Father 
Durthaller began his long and fruitful ministrations 
at the convent of the Good Shepherd which ended only 
with his life. The place was growing into a little par- 
ish by itself, and rewarded abundantly in conversions 
the labors that were bestowed upon it. Right well 
were his efforts appreciated by community and 
children, right well did they repay his kindness in the 
days of his need. 

His ministrations brought him into contact frequent- 
ly with a neighboring institution, St. Joseph's German 
Orphan Asylum, on Eighty-Ninth Street and Avenue 
A. All the Germans at that time in Yorkville attended 
the little Chapel of the Orphan Asylum, where a priest 
speaking their own language could hear their confes- 
sion, preach to them and administer to them the Last 
Sacraments when no one else could serve them. With 
the advent of the great brewing companies to the 
vicinity, the number of German Catholics grew beyond 
the capacity of the Asylum Chapel, and many were be- 
ginning to neglect the Sacraments to the imminent 
danger of their faith. Feeling pity for them, and 
moved by zeal for their souls, Father Durthaller tried 
to gather them at St. Lawrence's for Mass and for con- 
fessions as far as they could be persuaded to come. 
The language, as always in the first generation, was a 
stumbling block. Few cared to go to church where 
the sermons were unintelligible, and though Father 



DIVISION 91 

Durthaller strove harder and harder, and confined his 
labors mainly to the Germans during his second year 
here, he was forced to conclude that in order to pre- 
serve the adults, and bring up the young in the faith, 
he would have to construct a German Church. The 
Archbishop and his Superiors agreed with his views, 
and authorized him to establish a German parish. For 
two years he labored hard to collect funds for his pro- 
ject, never desisting on account of indifference or re- 
buffs. His zeal, his kindness and his winning author- 
ity were so far successful that before long he had a 
church, school and residence. Meantime he was sup- 
ported and supplied with meals at the House of the 
Good Shepherd, retiring each night to Eighty-Fourth 
Street after a day of many disappointments and some 
consolations. But the consolations grew more and 
more frequent as the people began to know and love 
their pastor, and to perceive that all his efforts sprang 
from the purest unselfishness, and from love of their 
immortal souls. Now his name is one to conjure with 
among the older members of the congregation. 

The German parish, without limits, was organized 
in 1873. The Congregation first heard Mass in the 
Asylum Chapel, and the School children, forty in num- 
ber, were taught by the Sisters of Notre Dame in 
charge of the orphanage. The work on the Church 
was hastened and was finished in April, 1874. On the 
16th of that month Archbishop McCloskey dedicated 
the Church and consecrated its three altars. Father 
Durthaller's next effort was to construct a residence 
for himself and his Assistant, which he did on a lot 
next to the Church. By 1877 the number of children 



92 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVTLLE 

of school age had so increased that they could be no 
longer accommodated in the orphanage. So Father 
Durthaller set about building a school of his own. He 
purchased two lots and erected a school which cost 
30,000 dollars. The lower floor was destined for parish 
assemblages, while the upper ones were divided into 
class rooms. 

Father Durthaller was an Alsatian by birth, studied 
at the Lyceum of Strasburg, and received a bachelor's 
degree from the University of France. Feeling a 
vocation to the priesthood, he entered the Seminary 
of Strasburg and finished his course of theology. 
Called to the Society, he entered the Province of Bel- 
gium and having finished his Novitate he was sent to 
teach. Among his pupils he numbered the famous 
artist, Gustave Dore. The revolution of 1848 drove 
him with many others into exile. In America he am- 
bitioned the Indian Missions, but his frail health was 
unequal to the hardships of such a life. He was as- 
signed to college work, first in Montreal and next in 
New York. He filled the post of Prefect of studies 
and discipline at St. Francis Xavier's, New York, with 
remarkable success, and after a short absence returned 
as Rector of the College, and enriched the institution 
with a new building as a reminder of his administra- 
tion. He was a successful builder, as is manifest by 
St. Michael's Church in Buffalo with Canisius College 
adjoining. About eight years were spent in the city 
by the lake, on the completion of which period he re- 
turned to New York. After organizing a parish for 
the Germans in Hoboken, N. J., he came to Yorkville, 
where in a few months he undertook a similar task. 



DIVISION 93 

His last efforts for the Good Shepherd are thus set 
down by Miss Conway in her history of the commu- 
nity : "According to his custom he came to offer the 
community Mass on Sunday, May 3, Feast of the Find- 
ing of the True Cross. He was wearied by the protract- 
ed labors of the preceding day in the confessional. At 
this Sunday Mass he gave Holy Communion to four 
hundred; and after Mass, exposed the Blessed Sacra- 
ment with the usual ceremonies. He died in the ves- 
try of St. Joseph's Church an hour later, being stricken 
with apoplexy as he was preparing to celebrate an- 
other Mass for his parishioners." His prophecy on the 
occasion of Father Hackpiel's death : "I shall soon 
follow him," was fulfilled. Though his work lay 
mostly among Germans, he deserves a mention here as 
a member of the community, because he labored in this 
church too, and because he did more than his share in 
the Catholic growth of Yorkville. St. Joseph's may 
be considered a daughter parish of St. Lawrence, not 
only because it is within our former limits, but because 
it is an outgrowth of our labors. 

The growth of the parish is illustrated by the Record 
of Baptisms in decennial periods. In the first full year 
of its existence, 1852, there are noted 85 Baptisms, 
which grew to 318 ten years later, and amounted to 462 
in the year 1872. Probably the number would have 
been much greater if the Civil War had not broken out 
eleven years before. At first sight it does not seem 
apparent why Fredericksburg and Petersburg in Vir- 
ginia, and Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, should affect 
the Baptisms in Yorkville, yet the conclusion is inevit- 

^n the Footprints of the Good Shepherd, p. 140. 



94 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

able that such was .he case. Marriages here were 131 
and 125 in the ye irs 1860 and 1861 respectively, and 
fell to 75 the yea: after, and to 66 in 1863, to 63 in 
1864, and to 30 in 1865. From this on they began to 
increase slowly until they reached 77 in 1872, just 54 
fewer than in th : year before the war. What a set 
back the war was, not merely in human life and wealth 
at the time, but even for a generation after, with a 
legacy of pensior s to be paid by succeeding generations, 
and a population less than the normal increase to meet 
the taxes in order to pay the maimed, and the depend- 
ents of those who were lost ! 

In July, 1872, the staff of Priests was increased by 
one. Father Durthaller henceforth devoted his atten- 
tion to the Germans as long as he lived, and could give 
no material aid in the parish and was even relieved of 
his duties at the Good Shepherd, which were taken 
over by Father Joseph Delabays, a new arrival at St. 
Lawrence's. The growing work demanded an addi- 
tional laborer to aid Fathers Gockeln and Archambault 
in the parish ; so, in answer to the need, Father John A. 
McDonald came for two years. He was a native of 
the Provinces, belonged to the Canada Mission, was 
engaged, after leaving here, as a missionary for some 
time and returned to Canada, his home. 

Most of the baptisms and all of the converts fell to 
the lot of Fathers Gockeln and McDonald. Out of the 
twenty received into the Church here sixteen names are 
subscribed by the former and four by the latter. 
There seemed to have been no preference on the score 
of nationality, the Germans patronizing the Scot im- 
partially, and the English and Irish seeking the min- 



DIVISION 95 

istry of the German. Perhaps the post of Pastor dre w 
to him the larger number of inquirers, as even in spirit- 
ual things the ministrations of a dignitary are more in 
request than those of one in the ranks. Even good 
Catholics boast of the honor of having been commu- 
nicated by the Pope, as if he could give more than a 
country curate, as if there were any difference in the 
Gift when conferred by the Pope and when received at 
the hands of the Priest just ordained. Possibly Father 
Gockeln's old joke of passing himself off as an Irish- 
man on the score that he was born in the diocese of 
Munster, had its effect on the simple. A man of his 
dignity must be surely right, and an Irishman in spite 
of his name. Whatever the cause may have been, a 
goodly number of the converts in the parish during 
his entire term here owe their reception into the Church 
to Father Gockeln. 

Father Gockeln was a fluent speaker and remarkable 
conversationalist in English and French as well as in 
German. But he does not seem to have been a writer 
or a jotter down of parish happenings like his predeces- 
sor. Nothing from his hand has come down to us ex- 
cept his signatures of Baptisms and Marriages. In his 
term of three years the former were 460, 511 and 444. 
The notable decrease in 1874 is doubtless due to the 
opening of a special Parish Church for the German 
portion of Yorkville. Even so, the number of Bap- 
tisms is large for the population, and can only be ex- 
plained by the influx of recently married couples into 
a new section of the city, where real estate could be had 
at a low price and rents were cheap. There is the 
hardship of a long drive down town in a horse-car that 



96 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

appears at rare intervals only, but there is a compensa- 
tion in the good nature of the driver, who will slow up, 
or stop short, to accommodate a patron whom he sees 
running across vacant lots. There is a quicker but 
dearer route by rail from Eighty-Sixth Street for those 
who cannot spare time, but can afford to spare cash. 
Whether convenient or inconvenient, Yorkville was 
becoming more and more attractive, and people came 
to enjoy its advantages, Catholics amongst others; but 
not in such numbers as not to be easily assimilated by 
the older population. They were able to imbibe the 
old spirit of the place where even* one knew every- 
body else, where all saluted, where all had an interest in 
the whole as well as in each individual. It was yet a 
long time from the day when men lived in the same 
house and never accosted one another, when Catholics 
going for years to the same church, and even living in 
the same house, did not know one the other's religious 
belief. As Baptisms fell off owing to the opening of 
St. Joseph's church, so did the marriages in the same 
proportion. 

During Father Gockeln's administration there was 
no need of construction or change of any kind in church 
or school. The children under his own immediate su- 
pervision were well taught, were carefully instructed 
in their religious duties and prepared for First Com- 
munion and Confirmation, and continued to grow in 
number as well as in size. With the sole exception 
of the Young Men's Sodality, the organizations of the 
parish were in a flourishing condition. If he had been 
fond of writing, the pastor would have left us an ac- 
count of devotions and novenas, sermons and instruc- 



DIVISION 97 

tions in Advent and Lent, in May and October. But 
he did not write, and so it is impossible to specify. The 
work was energetically pushed and the general results 
were satisfactory, as we can gather from the church 
records. 

He had to struggle hard to make ends meet financial- 
ly, and if he had not received from Albany for the 
school the sum of 3,600 dollars in his first year and 
6,500 from a fair with 2,900 from a Panorma he 
would have been swamped. Taxes, assessments, inter- 
est, contributions to the new Cathedral, would have 
left a dangerous deficit. The church acquired a con- 
siderable piece of property on Second Avenue, which 
w j th its interest ran up the debt to the amount of 68,- 
900 dollars to be met by his successors. It was wean- 
work striving to scrape together enough money to meet 
his liabilities and undoubtedly he turned with pleasure 
to his fruitful work of directing the school and in- 
structing converts. On June the 25th he was installed 
Rector at Fordham, where he had to meet and solve 
problems no less urgent or difficult, problems which 
he solved entirely to the satisfaction of those who had 
imposed that task upon him. He continued to admin- 
ister the college for over eight years. 

Father Frederick W. Gockeln was born at Grosen- 
ader, in the diocese of Monster, Westphalia, on the 
8th of November, 1820. At the age of thirteen years 
he came with his elder brother to America. Attracted 
to study, he gave up shortly a position in business 
which he got with his brother, and entered the Sulpi- 
tian College, Montreal. Living amidst a Catholic 
population, he felt himself at home once more. His 



98 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

studious, gentlemanly and edifying deportment won 
for him the esteem and affection of the college faculty. 
An intimacy that lasted for life sprang up between 
Father Larkin, one of the professors, and Mr. Gockeln. 
When Father Larkin determined to enter the Society 
and made known his design, the announcement was a 
shock to his young friend, but not for long. Think- 
ing the matter over and consulting his confessor on the 
step, he determined to follow Father Larkin into Ken- 
tucky, where some Jesuits from France were engaged 
in teaching in a nascent college and in ministerial la- 
bors. The long trip in those primitive days consumed 
much time in actual travel and intervals of rest. Warm 
hospitality was extended to the wayfarers along their 
route, and pressing invitations were showered on them 
to enter the Society nearer home; but they resisted all 
inducements, and persevered in their determination. 
After many weeks of travel they reached St. Mary's 
College, Marion County, Kentucky. Mr. Gockeln 
after the usual probation was admitted to the Novitiate 
on the 16th of February, 1841. In May, 1842, he 
went with Father Larkin to open a new college at 
Louisville; but as the college had to be abandoned, 
they with their co-laborers returned to St. Mary's. 

In 1846 Bishop Hughes handed over his seminary 
and college at Fordham to the Jesuits living in Ken- 
tucky, and the entire body to the number of forty- 
seven migrated in vacation time to Fordham. Among 
these was Mr. Gockeln. He began his course of phil- 
osophy anew in Fordham, completed it in Belgium, 
and was sent for his theological studies to Laval in 
France. After four years he was ordained priest, in 



DIVISION 99 

1852. He made his Third Year at Laon. His res; 
dence in Canada, Belgium and France, over eleven 
years in all, made him a master of the French language, 
as well as of his native tongue, and of English which 
he spoke with fluency and precision. During the next 
eight years he was engaged in College work in New 
York, and the seven following years found him in 
Canada on parochial duty. He had the distinction of 
holding the post of first Minister of the new scholasti- 
cate of Woodstock, Md. He labored in Yorkville for 
four years, three as Pastor, and was promoted to the 
rectorship of Fordham in 1874. His last residence 
was Providence, Rhode Island, where he was pastor 
of St. Joseph's Church, and where he died after a few 
days of illness on November 27th, 1886. 

The vacancy caused at St. Lawrence's by the promo- 
tion of Father Gockeln to the rectorship of Fordham 
College was filled for a time by Father Shea. He had no 
peculiar aptitude for the details of parochial work. He 
had no experience, outside of preaching and hearing 
confessions, of the duties of a parish priest, and proba- 
bly felt no call short of obedience to engage in such 
duties. God had, however, bestowed on him singular 
talents for dealing with souls, and he was much in de- 
mand. His learning, his lucidity in communicating his 
ideas, his devotion to learning, his love of literature, his 
dignified yet lovable character, his unselfishness in help- 
ing others secured for him great authority over boys 
and men, and won their confidence and love. Clearly 
the class-room and college duties were the fitting oc- 
cupation for such a man. Accordingly he was sum- 
moned to St. Francis Xavier's College on October 6th, 



100 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

1874, and was given the class of rhetoric, the First 
Sodality and charge of the Literary and Debating So- 
ciety. As president of Fordham he had been thrown 
in contact with the best elements of New York Catho- 
lic Society, and won their respect and esteem. In his 
new post they found him a valuable counselor in their 
doubts and difficulties, and applied to him eagerly for 
advice, confident that it would be accorded to them 
freely. As men in the professions, in financial busi- 
ness, in society, are much immersed in their pursuits, 
it is easy to neglect religious duties (and some who 
sought out Father Shea did so), it was well for them 
that a man of his learning, zeal and piety was within 
reach, and influential enough to secure compliance with 
his advice not only in temporal matters, but also in the 
concerns of their souls. 

His stay at St. Lawrence's was so short, a little over 
three months, that he could exert but slight influence 
over the growing parish. He was not an orator, despite 
his success in teaching oratory. He could not use the 
net in catching sinners, though, like St. Philip Neri, 
he was a past master in using the line. At his de- 
parture he could leave behind him nothing but the mem- 
ory of a learned, refined, pious priest. Even so, such 
a legacy is a good one to possess. He died after a 
surgical operation on December 5th, 1881. "His 
funeral showed that his many friends and in fact all 
Catholic New York mourned for the untimely death 
of the man whom all loved and esteemed." 1 

On October 6th, 1874, Father Achard took charge 
of the parish as pastor. He was on the spot, had been 

historical Records and Studies, Vol. 8, p. 244. 



DIVISION 101 

for a year under Father Gockeln, and had been here 
from 1866 to 1869 at the very outset of the Jesuit oc- 
cupation. He was, therefore, well acquainted with 
the people and the condition of the parish, its activi- 
ties and its needs. He took to himself charge of the 
school and the finances. Like his predecessors he had 
to exert his utmost ability and ingenuity to keep his 
head above the financial flood that threatened him at 
every moment. He succeeded so well that he dimin- 
ished the indebtedness by 2,000 dollars. Not much, we 
are disposed to say in times like these, but we must 
remember that New York was endeavoring to find it- 
self once more after the worst financial crisis in the 
history of the country. New York in particular had 
been hard hit, and people held tightly to their money, 
not knowing what might come next. Gold was in 
hiding and at premium, while silver was disposed to 
venture abroad only with the utmost caution. 

Father David Walker was a new arrival in York- 
ville in the summer of 1874, one who tarried long here 
and left his impress on the parish. He had just ar- 
rived from England where he had almost completed 
his two years of Novitiate. He had been several years 
on the Mission as a secular priest before seeking ad- 
mission to the Society. He was in his prime and fresh 
from his meditations on the life of Christ. He was 
determined to do all in his power for the salvation of 
souls. Like his divine Master he yearned most for the 
lost sheep, and the darker the hue of the sheep the 
more persistent and vigorous was his pursuit, until he 
made a capture or was obliged to acknowledge a fail- 
ure. The folly of sin, even from the natural point of 



102 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

view, was so thoroughly imprinted on his mind that 
his language was tinged with a bitterness that was 
inspired by his convictions, though it found no place 
in his heart. The dreadful consequences of sin in the 
next life were so impressed on him that the subject of 
hell was the frequent theme of his sermons and instruc- 
tions. The short, active figure, the set determination 
of his features, his quick, nervous words and gestures 
emphasized his thoughts, and inspired many with a 
fear that was unknown to those who sounded his real 
character, and, above all, to those who approached him 
with their troubles or sought his advice. To such he 
was a Father, and many of them yet hold his name in 
benediction. 

With the hearty approval of his superior he devoted 
himself to the pursuit of the black sheep, young and 
old, but particularly the former. Many such could be 
found disporting themselves, not always in innocent 
gambols, on the vacant lots about Fifth Avenue in the 
northwestern section of the parish, or about street cor- 
ners on the southeastern confines of our territory. 
One would scarcely expect much reverence or attention 
in such places. Yet the big stick which Father Walker 
always carried, his serious and determined face, his 
earnest words, his persistence and his unselfishness 
and his zeal for their souls produced their impression. 
Little by little strange faces could be counted in the 
church on Sunday mornings. As time passed captures 
increased, though occasionally unruly lambs escaped 
from the flock. The task seemed hopeless, it certainly 
was thankless ; but Father Walker kept on. God alone 
knows how much good was effected, and how many 



DIVISION 103 

owe their faith and their salvation to his untiring ef- 
forts. 

In making his rounds of the parish whether on sick- 
calls or on visitations, his attention was called to the 
number of people, especially young men and boys, who 
neglected the duty of hearing Mass on Sunday and 
holydays of obligation. The frivolous reason of dis- 
tance was alleged in excuse. How it must have excited 
the indignation of Father Walker to hear the plea of 
distance coming from those whose fathers had cheer- 
fully walked every Sunday to Harlem, and whose 
grandfathers thought little of journey of three or four 
miles in rain and through bogs and muddy roads and 
fields, provided they could have the privilege of speak- 
ing face to face with the Eucharistic God, and have 
part in the holy sacrifice of the Mass. It was useless 
to expostulate, to tell them they would double that dis- 
tance for amusement, and count the exertion as noth- 
ing. Faith, where it existed at all, was growing weak ; 
it was fading away from lack of prayer and privation 
of Holy Communion, and was on the way of being 
choked by the weeds of indifference and of self indul- 
gence. To take away from them all pretexts, flimsy 
as they were, Father Walker determined to secure for 
them a place of worship on Sundays, a place where Cat- 
ec&sm could be taught and instructions imparted to 
those who needed it. The objects of his solicitude 
would probably have thanked him for leaving them 
alone; but the greater their indifference the more de- 
termined was he to find a remedy for their spiritual 
destitution. 

But how was he to find means to carry out his 



104 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

project ? With the approbation of his superior secured, 
with permission from the Archbishop freely accorded, 
he was persuaded that God willed the success of his en- 
terprise, and would supply the means. He appealed to 
the congregations at all the Masses on Sunday and, 
cap in hand, stood outside the church doors to take up 
whatever contributions the people might be disposed to 
make. The congregation had certainly calls enough 
in order to carry out the activities and meet the expen- 
ses of the church, yet they could not fail to note the 
zeal and self-sacrifice of the apostle of the black sheep, 
who stood bare-headed before them to receive their 
alms. They drew still further on their slender means, 
and showed themselves willing to second the efforts of 
their new assistant for the salvation of souls. Quar- 
ters were hired on Seventy-Fifth Street near First Ave- 
nue and fitted up as well as the contributions would 
allow. Mass was said for the Catholics of the vicinity, 
and volunteer teachers were secured for the instruction 
of such as were willing to receive it. The work seemed 
to appeal to many, and money enough continued to 
come in until the need of St. Aloysius Chapel was re- 
moved by the founding of a new church, St. Monica's. 
Old residents yet remember the suggestive name 
given to the upper Fifth Avenue between Ninety-Sixth 
and 100th Streets. Hell's Kitchen was composed of 
shacks planted here and there at random and occupied 
by squatters. Armed with his "big stick" which 
might at times serve for use as well as for ornament, 
Father Walker moved among these quarters, accosted 
men, women and children, gathering facts as to faith 
attendance at church and frequentation of the Sacra- 



DIVISION 105 

merits. The lamentable condition of the majority of 
the Catholics there moved his heart and stirred him to 
action. He worked over time at his sermon themes, 
Hell and Judgment, infused into them more than ordi- 
nary animation, and began to make some impression. 
Just as one degraded being will drag down another, so 
when a real conversion takes place, the convert actually 
becomes an apostle among his fellows. A few such 
were found to co-operate with Father Walker, and the 
number willing to reform their lives grew apace. To 
strengthen his hold on his new-corralled sheep he in- 
stituted what he called a crusade, and enrolled his late 
converts as crusaders. He taught them to conquer 
the infidel country of their own hearts, to subdue their 
habits of drunkenness and profanity, to develop in 
them loyalty to God by the steady practice of their re- 
ligion. 

"Here I may mention a Society formed by Rev. 
Father Walker, of happy memory, known by the name 
of a 'Crusade,' no doubt under the invocation of some 
saint, which I do not remember. This Crusade had 
its regular communion on the Fifth Sunday, which 
occurs every three months. It was indeed a religious 
Crusade, as the men and women who belonged to it 
were gathered from places in the parish that were not 
noted for the practice of religious duties. Rev. Father 
Walker in making his tour of the parish came in con- 
tact with this class of people, and by his indefatigable 
zeal and energy succeeded in arousing many of these 
non-practical Christians to a sense of their duty to God. 
From one part of the parish, known as Hell's Kitchen, 
situated on Fifth Avenue and Ninety-Sixth to One 



106 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Hundredth Street, were a number of squatters (excuse 
the expression) living in shanties .... Among 
these the good Rev. Father succeeded in making a re- 
form. And at the seven o'clock Mass on the Fifth 
Sunday might be seen many strange faces of men and 
women showing signs of a dissolute life. This reform 
began in the years 1875, 1876 or earlier, and was being 
continued when I came to the convent. 

"Added to the general Communions the Rev. Father 
Walker had meetings, I do not remember how often, 
but feel certain in saying once a month, or oftener, in- 
structing, exhorting and encouraging them in the good 
work they were doing, and had Miss Eleanor Beaty 
(R. I. P.) to come to the meetings and teach them to 
sing hymns, and give them a musical concert. Besides 
this Crusade, Rev. Father Walker was all taken up 
with the young boys. His zealous efforts bore great 
fruit in the frequentation of the Sacraments, and in 
having them come Saturday mornings to get their 
library books changed, which books were attended to 
by young ladies of the Sodality. They covered the 
books with drab silesia and kept them in good condi- 
tion. Apart from this, Rev. Father Walker did not 
have much use for girls." 1 

It is fitting to dwell thus at length on the activities 
of Father Walker and his zeal for souls, because he 
was the active, energetic, tireless member of the com- 
munity, and because many may remember only the 
hasty, irascible side of his character. He would be 
the most surprised man in the world to hear that he 
was looked upon as irascible or intemperate of speech. 

'Sister X, Good Shepherd. 



DIVISION 107 

Though he could be, and frequently was, kind and 
sympathetic and helpful to those in trouble, his zeal 
sought out first of all those who were in danger of 
losing their souls, and strove to arouse them to a sense 
of their danger. He appealed by preference to the 
horrors of judgment and hell because he could bring 
these subjects home to their intelligence. He might 
have done better, perhaps, by spreading honey rather 
than vinegar (to use the expression of the saintly Bish- 
op of Geneva) to catch his flies for heaven; but we 
can say this in his favor that he caught his flies and 
saved many from damnation. 

The humdrum task of running a parochial school, 
though it may encounter many a comic incident, with 
a childish tragedy thrown in once in a while, as when 
some youthful reprobate of eight years is made to stand 
in a corner for a few minutes and to kiss her thumb- 
nail in token of repentance, or a youth of nine with 
voracious appetite is found nibbling at his lunch at 
10 A. M. and is forced to surrender the whole meal be- 
fore the class ; still there is little to chronicle about such 
a charge. Equally uninteresting is the record of bap- 
tisms, sick-calls, sermons, instructions to sodalities. 
Such were the occupations of Father Achard during 
the three years of his superiorship in Yorkville. The 
financial improvement that began to be felt before the 
end of his term enabled him to diminish the rate of in- 
terest on his debt, no slight relief to the parish. The 
good he did amongst souls he never knew until he met 
our Lord in judgment, and was astonished to receive 
such a reward as Christ meted out to him. The ac- 
count of his life in "Historical Records and Studies," 



108 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Vol. 6, part 2, concludes with these words: "Father 
Achard was a strict observer of his religious rules and 
a man of exceptional piety." 

Rev. Florentine Achard was born at Ramourouscle, 
Upper Loire, October 20th, 1824. He entered the So- 
ciety of Jesus in France, on the 19th of October, 1845. 
He made his philosophical studies in Vals, and on their 
completion in 1851 he set sail for America. He taught 
for ten years in the South, made his theological studies 
in Spring Hill, Alabama, and was ordained priest in 
1856. In the fall of 1862 he came to Fordham, where 
he made his Third Probation and was employed 
in the mission for seventeen years. From 1874 to 
1877 he was superior at St. Lawrence's. On leaving 
here he was given a mission amongst the Indians in 
Canada, at Fort William, Ontario. From there he 
went to Troy where he died June 17th, 1880. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Home Rule. 

From August 10th, 1851, to July 31st, 1877, not 
one of those who served at St. Lawrence's was born in 
the United States, if we except Father Mulledy. The 
rest were Irish, French, Canadian or German. Prob- 
ably few of the parishioners gave thought to the na- 
tionality of their priests, and it is a credit to their Cath- 
olicity that the grace of Holy Orders, possessed by all 
Priests, outweighed every other consideration of lan- 
guage, nationality or personal trait. They all looked 
up to their Priests and accepted their ministrations and 
teachings in the spirit of pure faith. The man was lost 
in the Minister of God, the one nationality that was 
recognized in the congregation was the Kingdom of 
Heaven, to which all the members belonged by right 
of Baptism. From first to last, the Priests were ex- 
emplary and devoted to their calling. They knew 
their flock, and the flock knew and loved the 
pastors and assistants, and were conscious that they 
were known, and that their interests, spiritual and 
temporal, were dear to the hearts of their rulers. Hence 
the intimate family spirit of Yorkville of the last gen- 
eration and of previous years. It is pleasant to record 
here Father Merrick's generous appreciation of those 
who went before him. In his notes on St. Lawrence's 
he says : "Too much credit cannot be given to the 
Fathers who lived here previous to ... . 1879, mostly 

109 



110 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

foreigners, and not much acquainted with business, for 
having secured a hundred feet square south of this on 
the Avenue .... All this was paid for, and we have 
not acquired an inch of ground since. Our property 
is two hundred feet on the Avenue, one hundred feet 
on Eighty-Third Street and two hundred and sixty 
feet on Eighty-Fourth Street. When Father Merrick 
came into control he found ten thousand dollars in the 
bank .... I think this a very fair showing for these 
admirable French Fathers to whom the New York 
Mission owes so much. And any one who knew poor 
old Yorkville, as it used to be, will say so." 

It was not owing to any lack of appreciation of the 
good work done by the French Fathers that a change 
to English speaking superiors took place. It was not 
due to any national prejudice that Americans and New 
Yorkers were so often henceforth placed in charge of 
the work here. Father Charaux, the Superior of the 
Mission, was too large-minded a man to allow con- 
siderations of nationality to influence him in the pro- 
motion of God's work. He was a Frenchman by birth, 
and had no prejudice against the French, but he was 
broad-minded enough to judge that from the increasing 
number of Americans and New Yorkers he could pick 
out a young, active and promising Father to do God's 
work in Yorkville better than any of the French Fath- 
ers, no matter what success they had met. For this 
reason he selected, after the expiration of Father 
Achard's term, Father John Treanor to fill the vacant 
post. Time proved the selection a good one. 

Father John Treanor was born in the City of New 
York on December 5th, 1838, was admitted to the High 



HOME RULE 111 

School of St. Francis Xavier's College at an early age, 
and finished his collegiate studies in 1855. In that 
year he sought admission into the Jesuit Order, and 
being accepted, was sent for his novitiate to Montreal, 
Canada. He began his religious life on August 31st 
before he was quite seventeen years of age. On finish- 
ing his first spiritual training he was sent to Ford- 
ham College as disciplinarian, teacher and student 
of philosophy. In dealing with boys in the 
class-room, as well as outside, he acquired valuable ex- 
perience in the study of human nature. His manliness, 
good nature and affability won him the respect and af- 
fection of his charges. He took part in their games, 
and was as gay and light-hearted as the gayest, whilst 
he never put off or forgot his character of religious and 
gentleman. On the opening of the new scholasticate 
at Woodstock, Maryland, he went thither to study 
theology and prepare for ordination. Here for the 
space of three years he mingled with men from all sec- 
tions of the United States and from many countries of 
Europe. Independently of any study, this intercourse 
with various characters, ages and temperaments was 
an education in itself, well calculated to broaden his 
mind and his outlook. On June 29th, 1872, he was 
raised to the priesthood by Most Rev. James Gibbons, 
Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina, and in the follow- 
ing September he began his Third Year of Probation 
at Frederick, Maryland. 

He took his final vows on August 15th, 1873, and 
was ready to fill any post that might be assigned to him. 
For two years he acted as general prefect of discipline 
at Fordham when his former influence for good was 



112 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

enhanced by the added dignity of the priesthood and his 
wider sphere. During two years more he was vice- 
president at St. Francis Xavier's, where he also 
preached and assisted in the church. He was fully 
prepared in learning, spiritual training and experience 
to fill a more responsible post, and was appointed Su- 
perior and pastor of St. Lawrence's on July 31st, 
1877. He took with him to his new charge the manli- 
ness of a men's man, the sympathetic feelings of a ten- 
der woman together with the buoyancy of a youth, and 
from the very first found himself at home with all 
classes and ages. 

Father Treanor got to know the parish in a very 
short time, as lie mingled freely and intimately with 
all the members of the congregation and the children 
of the school. He was not long in finding out that his 
flock were with him, and would support him generously 
according to their means. His very first project was 
to make an addition to the house, which had always 
been inadequate, and which had now grown dingy. 
Donations flowed in freely. The addition was made, 
and a complete set of furniture, new or repaired, where 
repair was possible, was contributed. One man do- 
nated all the bricks for the addition to the house. 
Father Treanor next set to work to diminish the debt 
on the church property, amounting to $65,303.11 on 
the first of August, 1877, when he took hold. A 
church debt society was organized and netted a good 
sum. The pew rent seems to have increased materially 
from this out, and the collections for ordinary expen- 
ses of the church show a distinct upward tendency. 
No salary for the priests or sexton is charged against 



HOME RULE 113 

the congregation, as Father Treanor made clear in one 
of his Sunday announcements, but all was thrown into 
the general church fund. The result was a cancellation 
of 3,750 dollars during the first year. 

In his second year the pastor knew all his people in- 
timately, and realized that they would back him in any 
enterprise inaugurated for the church. The most im- 
portant move was to hold a fair for the liquidation of 
the debt. All threw themselves generously into the 
undertaking, worked with a will, or contributed freely. 
The result was an addition of 16,611 dollars to the 
funds of the church. This together with other receipts 
enabled Father Treanor to wipe out 19,700 dollars of 
the debt besides paying interest on his mortgages and 
several considerable contributions for various charitable 
purposes. To put an end to interest on mortgages, he 
determined to sell the piece of property situated on Sec- 
ond Avenue and Eighty-Fifth Street, purchased by 
Father Gockeln in May, 1872, which brought no re- 
turn, but was expensive in taxes and interest. He 
sold at a good figure, 40,000 dollars and so was enabled 
to cancel the indebtedness and to place a handsome bal- 
ance in bank. 

By this time he had begun to plan bigger things for 
the parish. The church had served its sacred purposes 
for nigh thirty years : it was a good church for its day ; 
but days and times were changing rapidly. Buildings 
all around were improving, new residences and stores 
of a better class were springing up everywhere, 
fashionable streets were being prolonged into York- 
ville, the new Cathedral on Fifth Avenue pointed out 
what the Catholics of New York thought the house of 



114 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

God ought to be, and set an example to priests and 
people, not indeed to be rivaled, that would be impos- 
sible in a single parish, but as an inspiration to coax 
others to do their best for the honor of God. The in- 
spiration was entertained by Father Treanor, though 
it took long years to reach realization. He felt, too, 
that there should be facilities for intermediate educa- 
tion in the neighborhood, so that Catholic boys, who 
had an ambition to go through a High School course, 
might not be compelled to travel by slow cars as far as 
Fifteenth Street to satisfy their ambition. He wanted 
a new church and a college, even though it should open 
with the High School classes only. 

He was not satisfied with harboring his ambitious 
thoughts in his own mind, but made others sharers of 
his projected developments. So favorably were his 
suggestions received that he left after him in donations 
for the new church and college the sum of $9,330.63. 
Believing that the burden of carrying out his ideas 
would be too much for Yorkville to bear, he accepted 
in September, 1880, an invitation to travel to Califor- 
nia with his friend Judge Donohue and his family. 
Catholics in California were rich and generous, and it 
was Father Treanor's hope that he might be able to se- 
cure some considerable donations for his projected im- 
provements. It seems strange to us now with all the 
wealth displayed about us that a Priest whose parish 
embraced a good portion of upper Fifth Avenue, should 
travel out to California to beg from Irish immigrants 
or their sons; but the intervening years have worked 
great changes both in California and Yorkville. 

The trip westward was thoroughly enjoyable, as the 



HOME RULE 115 

party was small and agreeable, and never harbored a 
thought about a possible disaster. "They had visited 
and enjoyed the trip to Calaveras and the Big Trees, 
and had returned over part of the route to go to the 
Yosemite Valley. This they visited and enjoyed and 
were returning. . . . The party left the Yosemite Val- 
ley at six o'clock on Friday morning, and as they got 
to Garette in the afternoon, the brake of the stage 
broke. This delayed them for three hours for repairs. 
They left at seven o'clock and reached the top of Oak- 
flat Hill one hour later. The steep mountain road in 
the darkness of evening was itself unpleasantly sug- 
gestive of possible accident. Every precaution was 
therefore taken on the part of the driver, Jim Bruin, 
and conductor Walton, who sat beside him. The team 
was composed of three horses on the lead and two on 
the wheel. Feeling relieved of the load they took a 
lively gait. Yet with the driver's weight on the brake 
and the lines in hand, they were under complete con- 
trol until they struck a 'chuck hole.' The lever of the 
brake sprung violently backward, struck the driver and 
knocked him off his seat. The shock threw him into 
a gulch on the left of the stage, carrying the lines with 
him as he passed Walton. The horses then flew down 
hill, and the momentum of the wagon increased fear- 
fully. . . . Fortunately the road was clear. Walton 
got on the driver's seat, and with his foot on the brake 
and speaking to the horses they calmed down to almost 
a standstill. ... As the horses slowed up Father 
Treanor called out to him to pick up the lines, but it 
was impossible for Walton to leave the brake. 
Whether Father Treanor was making an effort to get 



116 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

out to secure the lines, and thus got his foot entangled, 
or not, is unknown. Just then the stage came against 
a tree and went gently over against the bank. Walton 
was thrown among the wheel horses and got kicked, 
but had the presence of mind instantly to cut the traces 
and free the horses. . . . When Father Treanor was 
reached, he said his left leg was broken. He must 
have had a terrible twist, for the anklebone protruded 
through his skin. 

"Medical aid was summoned at once. Two physi- 
cians came from a distance of fifteen and thirty-five 
miles, the one arriving at 2 A. M. on Saturday morn- 
ing and the second about eleven o'clock. Amputation 
was judged necessary, and in anticipation of death 
Father Philips of Sonora was summoned and com- 
pleted his journey of twenty-five miles by noon. The 
physicians determined at once to amputate the left leg 
a little below the calf. Though Father Treanor bore 
the accident with great calm and was almost cheerful, 
he thought it best to receive the sacraments of the 
Church from Father Philips. The amputation was 
successfully performed and had no bad consequences. 
The priest complained of suffering in the right thigh 
joint. As no one had a suspicion of a fatal result, the 
physicians and Father Philips left between five and six 
o'clock, giving instructions that if the sufferer should 
become restless he should take a morphine powder 
every four hours. Mrs. Donohue and her servant took 
charge of him while Mr. W r alton got his first rest. . . . 
At nine o'clock Mr. Walton found his brow cold and 
clammy and drops of cold perspiration trickling down 
his face. ... He was rational most of the night, but 



HOME RULE 117 

was very restless, evidently suffering from his right 
thigh and internal injuries. ... At three o'clock Mr. 
Walton could not feel his pulse, and messengers were 
again sent for physicians. But the patient was rapid- 
ly nearing his last moment on earth. Mrs. Donohue 
was called shortly before five. ... A great stream of 
dark fluid flowed from his mouth and with it his life 
departed. This was 5 o'clock. His last audible words 
were .... 'pray, pray.' ' n Even the strong frame 
of Father Treanor could not hold out against the shock 
of the fracture, the agony of the amputation and the 
internal injury. 

The joys anticipated by the excursion party setting 
out on the morning of September 7th were buried in 
gloom as the extent of the disaster slowly unfolded it- 
self before the dazed minds of Mr. and Mrs. Donohue. 
There was, of course, gratitude to God for the preserva- 
tion of the rest from a frightful death; but the fate of 
Father Treanor would throw a life-long cloud over the 
minds of all his fellow-travellers. Nor did they think of 
their own loss alone, the loss of a dear, devoted friend ; 
the thought of the relatives and of the parishioners filled 
them with dismay. As soon after the accident as pos- 
sible a dispatch was sent by Judge Donohue to Father 
Finnegan acquainting him with the injury and request- 
ing him to inform the family at once. This news came 
at 9 P. M. on Saturday. At 2 A. M. another telegram 
announced the amputation with expectation of recov- 
ery. Later a more ominous one arrived, sent after 
the sinking of the patient was observed. A fourth 
telegram came announcing the death, but not in time 

T Extracte from Mr. Walton's account, published in the New York 
Rarali, October 6th, 1880. 



118 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

to notify the congregation at the late Mass. The fact 
was first publicly made known by Father Moylan at 
the meeting of the Women's Sodality in the school 
building at 4 P. M. The director could with difficulty 
check his feelings, while the Sodalists made no effort 
to control theirs. That evening there was weeping 
and wailing throughout the whole parish ; for each one 
had lost a Father, a Brother, a Friend. It was hard to 
realize that none should ever see his smile again or hear 
his kindly words of praise or encouragement or hope. 

The remains were carried as soon as possible to San 
Francisco and were there embalmed, as Judge Donohue 
determined to have them transported to New York, to 
give the parishioners the melancholy satisfaction of 
assisting at the funeral. A Solemn Requiem Mass 
was celebrated in St. Ignatius Church, San Francisco, 
Wednesday, the 6th, and was attended by the promi- 
nent Catholics of the city, many of whom crossed the 
bay to Oakland to see the body placed in a special car 
chartered by Judge Donohue. In a week the train 
was in Jersey City, and was met by two of the Fathers 
from St. Lawrence, by representatives from the St. 
Vincent de Paul Society, of the Young Catholic 
Friend's Association, by the three Brothers of the de- 
ceased, by friends among the city officials and many 
others. A procession was formed and moved along 
Twenty-Third Street and Madison Avenue to Eighty- 
Second Street, where a band of school children to the 
number of eight hundred met the remains and escorted 
them to the church. The body lay in state in the main 
aisle of the Church all day; and until a late hour at 
night friends of the dead clergyman came to view the 



HOME RULE 119 

body. At seven o'clock on Thursday morning (Octo- 
ber 14th), Captain Robbins stationed a force of twenty 
men at the entrance of the Church to keep back the mass 
of people who were unable to obtain admittance, the 
church having been filled long before that hour. 

The Mass was celebrated at 8 :30 by Father Mc- 
Auley, S. J., an old classmate stationed in Holy Cross 
College, Worcester. Rev. Father Durthaller, S. ]., 
was Deacon, and Father Costin, S. J., of Fordham, 
was Subdeacon. In the sanctuary were Very Rev. 
Father Brady, the Provincial, Father Gockeln, Presi- 
dent of Fordham College, and about one hundred other 
priests. In the aisle by the coffin knelt Father Treanor's 
mother and his three brothers. 

The estimation in which Father Treanor was held 
in the parish and elsewhere is shown, as well by the 
throngs of people who were unable to obtain admis- 
sion to the church, as by the number who took part in 
the funeral procession from the church to the Grand 
Central depot. The St. Vincent de Paul Society, the 
young Men's Catholic Friends' Association, the boys 
and girls of the school, the Sodality of the Infant Jesus, 
the Sodality of Children of Mary in black dresses and 
black veils, and the Sodality of the Holy Angels, all 
took part to the number of about two thousand, while 
thousands of persons followed on the sidewalks as far 
as the depot. There a special train carried the remains 
and mourners to Poughkeepsie. On reaching Mount 
St. Vincent station the train was slowed down as it 
passed through a double line of the pupils of Mt. St. 
Vincent there assembled to do honor to their late Spirit- 
ual Director. They all wore badges of mourning, and 



120 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

the bridges which cross the track were heavily draped 
in black. Interment took place at West Park in the 
graveyard of the Novitiate, but recently the remains 
have been transferred with all the Jesuit bodies there 
to the new Novitiate of St. Andrew on Hudson, on 
the eastern bank of the river. 

As an aid in administering the parish, Father Trea- 
nor had for two years Father Reid, left over from 
Father Achard's term. He is yet favorably remem- 
bered as an efficient director of the Young Ladies' So- 
dality, one to whom, perhaps, the organization owes 
most of its continued flourishing condition. For the 
entire three years. Father Walker continued his Cru- 
sade and his temporary chapel at Seventy-Fifth Street, 
and added to his various devices for catching "black 
sheep," a Temperance Society whose members at times 
received Holy Communion in a body, and on one St. 
Patrick's day assembled for that purpose to the num- 
ber of ninety men, a gratifying spectacle to priests and 
people. In this move, if he needed any impulse more 
than his own zeal, he was aided by Father Treanor, 
whose sympathy went out towards every class and 
condition and every age. Father Petit, after a long 
absence, returned to continue his influence among 
young men and boys in the confessional. "If you were 
to ask any young man to whom he went to confession, 
the answer would come direct, 'Ah, to Father Petit." 
He was so much sought after as a confessor that he 
could not leave his box until eleven o'clock, and some- 
times until half after eleven." 

Before drawing a veil over the administration of 
Father Treanor, there are two facts worth mentioning. 



HOME RULE COMPLETE 121 

Confirmation was administered on June 19th, 1879, to 
the extraordinary number of 717 of whom 423 were 
females, mostly adults. Clearly the efforts of Father 
Walker were bearing good fruit as well amongst the 
squatters in the northwest portion of the parish as in 
the temporary chapel and Sunday school on Seventy- 
Fifth Street. To make this harvest permanent, Father 
Treanor conceived the idea of dividing the parish and 
establishing a Church in the midst of those whose faith 
was not strong enough to carry them a mile for wor- 
ship and instruction at St. Lawrence's. This same 
large number of negligent persons probably suggested 
to the zealous pastor the advisability of holding a mis- 
sion in the church in the following year. Father Ma- 
guire at the head of the Missionary band brought with 
him Fathers Strong, Morgan and Magevney, and 
opened the Mission on the first Sunday in Lent, Feb- 
ruary 11th, 1880. The fact that four men came, leads 
us to judge that plenty of work was expected. Their 
expectations proved correct. Men and women flocked 
in such numbers that the throng had to be divided 
every night, some filling the church and others the 
school. "A separate service was had every day for 
the children, and a very interesting ceremony in their 
behalf was had on the last Sunday; the children were 
assembled, and a certain number of boys and girls, ap- 
propriately dressed, renewed in the name of all the 
rest the Baptismal Vows, after which the papal Bene- 
diction was given by one of the Fathers." 1 

Another important item in the history of the parish 
of St. Lawrence is the establishment of St. Monica's 

Woodstock Letters, 1880, p. 154. 



122 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

as a separate congregation. It was apparent that the 
people residing in the southeastern section of our ter- 
ritory needed and could support a church. Father 
Walker's chapel supplied the needs of the children in 
that part for a time ; but it was evident that others be- 
sides the children would find a church of their own a 
great convenience. Father Treanor is said to have 
laid the matter before Cardinal McCloskey in the au- 
tumn of 1879 and induced him to establish a new par- 
ish. The parish of St. Monica was organized, the cor- 
ner stone of the church was laid in February, 1880, 
and the first Mass was celebrated in the temporary 
chapel prepared five years before by Father Walker. 
The limits were Seventy-Second to Ninety-Sixth 
Streets, Second Avenue to the East River. Later on, 
Eighty-Sixth Street became the northern boundary. 
This territory with its congested population gives 
abundant work for a pastor and three active assistants. 
There is a good school with an enrollment of about one 
thousand children. St. Monica's is the second parish 
cut off from the original limits of St. Lawrence's. 



S3 


ii 


*iri 




« 

1 




CHAPTER X. 

Home Rule Complete. 

For ten years the Fathers of the New York and 
Canada Mission had been working harmoniously side 
by side, some French and French-Canadians in the 
United States, and some Americans in Quebec and On- 
tario. But citizenship was apt to give trouble on 
either side of the line. To be a member of a corpora- 
tion here one had to be a citizen, and Canadians who 
became citizens, if called back, would find themselves 
strangers in their native land. To those who love 
their native land, as Canadians do passionately, this 
was a hardship. In like manner, nothing but obedience 
could reconcile many from here to become citizens of 
the British Possessions and renounce their nationality. 
To remedy complications of the kind, Very Rev. Father 
General, by a decree of June 16th, 1879, attached the 
Mission of Canada to the English Province of the So- 
ciety, and the New York portion of the Mission to the 
Province of Maryland, whose territory it intersected. 
The new Province thus augmented was to be called the 
Province of New York from the name of its principal 
city. But owing to representations made to Rev. 
Father General by the Archbishop of Baltimore, now 
Cardinal Gibbons, the name of Maryland was prefixed 
to the title. The Cardinal, a native of Maryland and 
proud of his State as the cradle of Catholicity in the 
Colonies, and knowing that the Jesuits were the sole 

123 



124 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

preachers of Catholic doctrine there for 150 years, re- 
gretted for sentimental reasons to see the name of 
Maryland dropped from the first Jesuit Province. Since 
1880 then St. Lawrence's became a church and resi- 
dence of the Maryland-New York Province. 

During the few weeks that passed after the death of 
Father Treanor, Father Petit remained in charge of 
the church as Minister. On November 1st, 1880, 
Father Fulton was appointed Superior. Father Allan 
McDonnell as supernumerary, being no longer neces- 
sary, was sent to Troy. There remained then, besides 
Fathers Walker and Petit residents for some years, 
Father Finnegan, a new arrival, and Father Moylan, 
returned after an absence of nine years. The estab- 
lishment of a new parish shortened the distance of 
many of the sick-calls, and cut off a number of peni- 
tents and worshipers, and caused a notable diminution 
<:f baptisms at St. Lawrence's. Yet in a short time the 
growth of the city, accelerated every year, made up for 
the loss of the parishioners of St. Monica's. Despite 
the five Masses every Sunday, the church was becoming 
over-crowded, and a new church or increased space 
must be provided. If Father Treanor had lived three 
years longer, it is almost certain that he would have 
provided for the growing need. 

His successor, Father Fulton, did not remain long 
enough to do much. He was by nature and by voca- 
tion and by preference an educator. He had labored 
hard in Boston for twenty years, and his efforts have 
borne gratifying fruit in the College which he had 
carefully nursed and watched from its infancy of a few 
beginners, unlikely material for collegiate education, 



HOME RULE COMPLETE 125 

up to the time when large classes were being turned 
out, and were beginning to hold their heads high in 
the community. It was a new sensation in Boston to 
read good articles from Catholic pens, and to hear 
speeches from men who had never entered the gates 
of Harvard University. By instruction and example 
year after year, Father Fulton strove to animate the 
ever increasing classes to aim at true manly piety, high 
ideals, clear thinking, thorough scholarship and perfect 
expression in classical English. His weekly catecheti- 
cal meetings gave him opportunities which no other 
duties were ever allowed to interrupt, and his talks ad- 
mirably illustrated as well as conveyed his ideas and 
precepts. He had a wonderful flow of purest English 
to express his exalted ideas, and clearness of mind and 
aptness of illustration sufficient to reach the most ordi- 
nary talents. 

Without fear of contradiction he might be called the 
most influential Catholic in New England, and his 
society was cultivated not only by the Catholic element, 
but, perhaps, in a greater degree by the lights of 
Protestant or Agnostic Boston. His keen wit was 
relished by those who appreciated wit and were not 
looking for slights, real or imaginary. His logical 
mind was a revelation to such as confounded obscurity 
and verbosity with deep thinking, while his mastery of 
the best authors, Latin and English, was a treat to the 
cultured. In a contest of wits he could give and take 
with the best, but to the gossip, the curious, the dealer 
in platitudes, he could be blunt almost to brutality. 
"Are you going to Albany?" said a fop to him on a 
train about Poughkeepsie ; "Yes," replied Father Ful- 



126 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

ton, "are you?" "Yes." "Then go," was his short 
answer. The conversation was closed. He was not 
unkind, but he despised stupidity, and escaped from it 
by the shortest cut. Where there was real trouble or 
distress he was full of sympathy, and though cold in 
appearance, and dull-looking, and aloof, and independ- 
ent, and self-sufficing, he had a keen appreciation of a 
compliment or a favor, and, like lesser mortals, was 
pained at any apparent neglect or lack of appreciation 
on the part of others. 

Coming to St. Lawrence's after such a career in Bos- 
ton, and, in particular, succeeding such a magnetic man 
as Father Treanor, his road was not an easy one. His 
caustic wit repelled where, under different circum- 
stances, it might have attracted ; and his dull, heavy 
appearance, apparently lacking in sympathy, could 
scarcely win him popularity, without which he could 
not hope to carry out his own or his predecessor's ideas. 
He kept in mind his mission as an educator, and pur- 
chased a plot of ground on Eighty-Third Street where 
Loyola School now stands. This and the construction 
of the basement of the new residence is the sum of 
what we owe him for his residence of eight months 
here. He was called away to Washington to take 
charge of Gonzaga College, which stood much in need 
of his financial ability as well as of his talents as a 
director of an educational institution. He was still 
known there both by his former pupils and by men in- 
fluential in society. He had been brought up there, 
was a page in the Senate and a rapt listener to such 
giants as Webster, Clay, Calhoun and other lights. 
From them he inherited his power of expression and 



HOME RULE COMPLETE 127 

his love of good reading, which stored his mind with 
noble ideas. It is hard to imagine the slouchy, un- 
gainly Father Fulton of later days as a natty page in 
the United States Senate. 

From the rectorship of Gonzaga College he was 
elevated after a year to the important post of Provin- 
cial of the Maryland-New York Province and Visitor 
of the Irish Province, which called for two separate 
trips across the Atlantic. After being relieved from 
the burden of office, he filled for a time his old post of 
Rector of Boston ; but not for long. His health was 
beginning to fail, and years began to make their weight 
felt. Among other places he visited in search of relief 
was St. Lawrence's. He had returned hither once be- 
fore during his term as Provincial, while the new resi- 
dence of St. Francis Xavier's was being constructed. 
The last active work he did was at Georgetown, where 
he lectured to the post-graduates on Shakespeare and 
the Modern Novel. The task was congenial, and the 
place was connected with his youthful joys and ambi- 
tions, and the triumphs of his early teaching years. 
It could not hold him long, as he was fast failing. In 
a final effort to recuperate he went to California. He 
seemed to revive for a time, but the improvement was 
only momentary. With scarcely any warning, he died 
on September 4th, 1896. He was a remarkable man, 
but was never understood at Yorkville. Perhaps he 
never tried to be appreciated. He had been so much 
sought after that perhaps he expected the same atten- 
tions in New York. The people came to him it is true ; 
but it was to pour into his ears the distress they felt 
at the loss of Father Treanor. One would imagine. 



128 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

and Father Fulton sometimes did imagine from their 
words and plaints, that they held him accountable for 
their calamity. "I did not kill him," said he once to 
a strident mourner. His apparent callousness did not 
bring him popularity. He was not insensible to grief, 
but he was intolerant of unreason. The present writer 
remembers seeing him mourn like a mother at the un- 
timely death of a former promising pupil, which took 
place in Baltimore a few months before the sad accident 
to Father Treanor. He was perfectly conscious of the 
loss the province sustained in the death of a promising, 
active, zealous worker in the service of God, but he 
would not show his feelings, if he could keep them un- 
der control. 

Father Fulton could not but approve of the ambi- 
tious projects entertained by his predecessor for erect- 
ing a new church, a residence adequate for the require- 
ment of a growing community, and a High School for 
Yorkville and surroundings. With the goodly balance 
left by Father Treanor and the additions made to it 
by the Collectors for the Building Fund there were 
17,000 dollars available. Seven thousand were spent 
on the purchase of a lot on Eighty-Third Street ad- 
joining the Church property. Contributions, however, 
began to dwindle, as the word had somehow got abroad 
that the idea of building had been abandoned. It was 
a report favorable to those who were reluctant to give, 
and such there must be always in every community. 
Owing to this report, and because Father Fulton was 
not urgent in his appeals and not magnetic in his inter- 
course with his parishioners, contributions fell off to 
130 dollars and even 100 dollars a month. The false 



HOME RULE COMPLETE 129 

rumors were corrected by announcement at the Masses 
that construction would begin as soon as contributions 
should warrant the attempt. Because facts speak louder 
than words, bids for digging the foundation of the cel- 
lar in the new house were called for on March 10th, 
1881, and work was begun in the last week of the same 
month. On April 24th, bids for the construction of 
the cellar walls were solicited, and finally bids for the 
completion of the superstructure were announced on 
June 19th. The sight of the work actually begun had 
the immediate effect of augmenting the contributions. 
A generous donation of 5,000 dollars from Mr. James 
Keene was acknowledged on Sunday, January 23rd, 
and other but smaller donations began to come in as a 
response to the Pastor's appeal to the pew-holders on 
January 16th. The collectors began to bring in larger 
and larger amounts until the building was completed. 
This happy result was reserved for his successor. 

Father David Merrick. 

On June 21st, 1881, Father Merrick came up from 
St. Francis Xavier's, where he had been treasurer for 
seven years. If to account for money were the same 
as to collect money, his preparation for his work here 
would be invaluable; for there was much to be done, 
as his eye could tell at a glancce. In the centre of the 
vacant lot between Eighty-Third Street and Eighty- 
Fourth there were visible the foundation walls of an 
imposing parochial residence fronting on Fourth Ave- 
nue. It would take a good sum to cover these walls 
with a stone structure according to the architect's plan. 



130 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

There lay before him a plot one hundred feet square 
given up to the growth of vegetables at present, but 
destined as the site of a new church, and on the oppo- 
site corner a lot awaiting a school building. As he 
turned into what he calls "a tiny pastoral residence," 
he became convinced that there was work enough to 
tax skill and energy. Like his two predecessors he 
saw that it was not possible to enlarge the church by 
prolonging it backwards without the purchase of more 
property, and there was property enough at present ; 
nor was it desirable to continue a northern exposure, 
if any other could be secured. To heat a church with 
a northern exposure and keep it heated in winter, when 
five congregations had to enter and leave in the space 
of four or five hours, is an expensive, if not impossible 
undertaking. Perhaps people had grown up with the 
idea that cold and piety went hand in hand, or that in- 
terior fervor would make up for exterior cold. They 
could learn that comfort is not incompatible with de- 
votion, while the saving in coal is not inconsiderable. 
To utilize the space on the corner of Eighty-Fourth 
Street and Fourth Avenue it had been determined to 
construct the new church there and secure a more de- 
sirable frontage. But a church such as was projected 
demanded more room to the west, and so the parish 
house had to be given up first, and the old church next, 
as soon as the congregation could be accommodated. 
The new residence had to be constructed before any 
other step could be taken. 

Money for the erection of the Priest's house was the 
all absorbing problem that faced Father Merrick on 
Wednesday, June 22nd, and to solve that problem he 



HOME RULE COMPLETE 131 

exerted all his skill, powers, energy and eloquence. It 
was an ungrateful task, and one which went far to mar 
his fame as a preacher. He struggled for seven years 
to realize the designs which he inherited, and satisfy 
his own ambition and his love of God and "the beauty 
of His house." Every device familiar to the impec- 
unious pastor was employed to raise money, fairs, 
bazaars, lectures, panorama of the Passion, etc., straw- 
berry festivals, collections made in church on the first 
Sunday of the month, and from house to house by au- 
thorized persons. The congregation answered his ap- 
peals generously and enabled him to meet the bills for 
construction as they were presented, and left him a sur- 
plus after the last one was paid in February, 1883. 
The residence was complete in the beginning of De- 
cember, 1882, and was thrown open for inspection by 
the congregation on December 4th, Monday, feast of 
St. Francis Xavier. The Fathers moved in immedi- 
ately and were much gratified to exchange their narrow 
quarters on Eighty-Fourth Street for their new and 
commodious home, one not unworthy of the improve- 
ments made in this locality in the last 32 years. 

The erection of the parochial residence was only a 
preliminary to the much greater work projected, a new, 
larger and more beautiful church. The need of such 
a church was emphasized on Sunday, November 19th, 
when the congregation was startled by the falling of a 
large section of the ceiling over the gospel side of the 
sanctuary and the east end of the gallery. The people 
were panic-stricken, but no serious damage was done, 
as that part of the building was practically unoccupied. 
While repairs were going on, Masses were said and con- 



132 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

fessions were heard in the school house. On Decem- 
ber 10th an extra collection was taken up to meet the 
expense of plastering the ceiling. The contributions 
continued liberal, and after paying off the last bills for 
the construction of the residence, they amounted to 
over 1,000 dollars a month. From this time forward 
contributions for the erection of a college are noted as 
a separate item for a time, though later on they seem 
to have been merged into the total for the new church. 
Father Merrick succeeded in maintaining more con- 
tinuity in his community than had been possible with 
any of his predecessors, if for no other reason, at least 
because they themselves had been changed at frequent 
intervals. Father Petit had become an agreeable fix- 
ture since the appointment of Father Treanor to the 
end of Father Merrick's term, a stay of eleven years in 
all. Father Walker continued from the days of Father 
Achard, 1874 to 1882. Besides his works already re- 
counted he had to his credit a movement productive of 
much good — the establishment of a Temperance So- 
ciety for which his fellow laborers gave their hearty 
applause and co-operation. It is to be feared, however, 
that those who preach "uplift" would visit his efforts 
with censure. He was a strong believer in temperance, 
but was slow to recommend total abstinence where he 
foresaw but little hope of its practice. His temperance 
was intended to fit each individual case. Only one 
thing was essential, that none of his members was ever 
to enter a saloon. Beyond that an examination was 
instituted in each case. If one, through habit or fan- 
cied need or prescription, had to have a glass of beer 
or wine, and could do with that, he was to restrict him- 



HOME RULE COMPLETE 133 

self to what was necessary. If one had to have two 
measures, and the amount was without any apparent 
effect on speech or gait or temper, he was allowed to 
join the band, provided there was sincere determina- 
tion not to go beyond the agreed limit. It is pleasant 
to add that few were unfaithful to their pledge, and 
these judged themselves bound in honor to report the 
fact to their spiritual director and to no one else. It 
speaks well for their trust in Father Walker's patience 
and his prudence and tact in dealing with one of the 
most difficult problems in modern society. 

Father Moylan, once Superior here, remained over 
from the last year of Father Treanor and outlasted 
Father Merrick by one year. During this period of 
nine years he busied himself in the house with the care 
of our nascent library, with the history of the parish, 
as far as it was recorded, and, above all, with care of 
the Sunday School. His love of children has been 
already mentioned. His children were those who fre- 
quented the Public Schools, and he was ambitious by 
care and instruction to put them on a level with our 
school children, who enjoyed the benefit of a Catholic 
training. However, as time went on and observation 
disclosed a disposition on the part of his charge to shun 
him on the street, or to gaze steadfastly into a store 
window r until he passed, while our children met him 
with a glad smile and even crossed the street to salute 
him, he began to realize that there was something amiss 
when Catholic children, his own Sunday School chil- 
dren, shunned a Priest on the street. Clearly they 
must have heard things in school, or out of it, which 
did not make for loyalty to the Church or priesthood. 



134 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

With regret he admitted to one of the Fathers that 
the Sunday School could not supply the Catholic at- 
mosphere, and the constant influence for piety that per- 
vaded the parochial schools. 

When Father Walker retired for a time, his mantle 
fell on the shoulders of Father Patrick Toner, a man 
as unlike his predecessor as possible. The one was 
quick, nervous, energetic, with the rod of castigation 
constantly on hand; when not in use, as it almost al- 
ways was, it was up his sleeve and ready for action. 
He was a thorough believer in the maxim that to spare 
the rod was to spoil the child. Father Toner on the con- 
trary was not a believer in the potency of the rod. He 
used a smile instead, and on rare occasions a frown. But 
the frown hurt more than the rod, and its worst feature 
was that the recipient of the frown could never harbor 
any resentment against the frowner, but against self 
for being so inconsiderate or so wayward as to deserve 
it. For five years Father Toner served under Father 
Merrick, taking charge of the school, the Temperance 
Society and the Bona Mors. He endeared himself 
particularly to the school children. His mild, gentle 
ways, his unaffected benevolence, gentlemanly manner 
and genuine sympathy won the little ones, so that they 
were captivated and made his heart captive in turn. 
What he was to the school children he was also, with 
due proportion, to all who came under his influence. 
So much was Yorkville in his thoughts and affections, 
that it was a serious cross to him to tear himself away 
when, on the death of Father Gockeln in Providence, 
on November 26th, 1886, he was appointed Superior 
to succeed him. He occupied his new post only a few 




Father Merrick 



HOME RULE COMPLETE 135 

weeks, dying on January 15th, 1887. "His departure 
from New York was hasty and he arrived in Provi- 
dence at night, thinly clad and thoroughly chilled." 
He died of pneumonia. Father Merrick on the morn- 
ing of the funeral tersely expressed his judgment in the 
words : "He was my right hand." "The pure snow 
that fell on his grave as we left him in Holy Cross 
Cemetery, was a voice ful emblem of his unsullied life. 
To his brethren of the Society the words Dilectus Deo 
et Hominibus (beloved of God and men) will be al- 
ways associated with the remembrance of the good 
Priest, Patrick Henry Toner." 1 

But it is time to say something about the character 
and labors of Father Merrick himself. He was born 
in New York, February 19th, 1833, and at the age of 
14 entered on his High School course in Fordham and 
finished in 1850. He was admitted to the law office 
of Charles O'Connor after leaving Fordham, but feel- 
ing called to the priesthood in the Society he applied 
for admission and was received. He spent his noviti- 
ate and one year of classical study at St. Acheul, 
France, and studied philosophy for three years at 
Laval, France. His teaching period was spent at 
Fordham, and his course of theology was made at Bos- 
ton College and at Fordham. After his ordination he 
was employed in college work at Fordham, but was on 
the regular staff of preachers at St. Francis Xavier's 
and at Yorkville. In "Historical Records and Studies," 
Vol. 6, part 2, the notice of his life concludes with these 
words : "His best eulogy is that he was a devoted 
friend of the poor." It is a real eulogy and well de- 

r A fellow novice, in the Woodstock Letters. 



136 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

served. But he was much more. He was a zealous, 
hard working Priest, and did not spare himself nor did 
he allow others to spare themselves, as long as there 
was a soul in need. He was a father to the poor, and 
a father and saviour to the sick, the dying and all in 
need of spiritual aid. In manner he was quick, abrupt 
and nervous in word and action. He was too busy a 
man to indulge in talk for the sake of talk, and must 
have been a terror to the garrulous and prolix. His 
very announcements, jotted down for the instruction 
of the congregation, denote a man surcharged with 
electricity. He puts as much into one page as another 
would into three. They are intelligible enough to one 
acquainted with the parish, though to a stranger they 
would be Chinese. In all things save one he was in a 
hurry. Perhaps he was hurried in all things to have 
abundant time for that one. At the very beginning of 
his incumbency he announced that the church doors 
would remain open on Sundays and week-days until 9 
P. M., to allow those who wished to do so to remain 
until that hour. It was an index of his own spirit. 
When he could shake himself free from calls and im- 
perative duty, he would retire to the Domestic Chapel 
in the small room immediately above the vestibule of 
the residence. And when he wished to be without in- 
terruption he would retire behind the altar and there 
commune alone with God. Unless one stumbled upon 
him unawares, his presence could not be detected. The 
first discoverer of the practice kept the secret to him- 
self, so that Father Merrick could pray at his ease, if 
his posture on the bare floor could be called one of ease. 
Here he learned to love the poor, the sick, the dying; 



HOME RULE COMPLETE 137 

to pity the sinner, to despise sham, prattle and glitter. 
Here he learned how to neglect his own case and spend 
himself for others. Here he tried to curb his impul- 
ses and his ardor, learning lessons from Him Who is 
"meek and humble of Heart." 

From December, 1882, to November, 1884, the build- 
ing fund was growing apace and the sum of 41,000 
dollars existed in the treasury. With this amount on 
hand Father Merrick felt that he could go on with the 
project so much heralded for seven years and so much 
desired on every hand. On November the 16th he 
announced to the congregation that work in excavating 
the basement would begin during the coming week. 
The effect was immediately felt in the contribution to 
the building fund. The amount rose from $371.63 in 
October to $1,600.60 in November, but fell below 
1,200 dollars in December. 

Judged by present modes of operation, work proceed- 
ed in a leisurely manner. Not much could be done 
whilst the ground was in the grip of Jack Frost; but 
on the advent of milder weather, operations proceeded 
at a more lively pace. The old residence had been 
taken down, and, as excavation proceeded, considerable 
propping up and strengthening of the walls of the old 
church was resorted to for greater security. The pay- 
ments from month to month give an idea of the prog- 
ress made. Two thousand dollars were paid 
out in March, 2,700 dollars in June, 15,000 
dollars in August and 12,985 dollars in Novem- 
ber. Plans were submitted to the building in- 
spectors and the contract was given out by 
the middle of May. Rush work on the exterior brought 
it to completion before winter, and in the following 



138 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

February the interior was completed. Pews and altars 
and all necessary furnishings were provided, so that 
the basement of the new church was ready for dedica- 
tion on June 27th, 1886. Accordingly Archbishop 
Corrigan came for that function. The ceremonies be- 
gan at 9 A. M. Mass was sung at 10 by the Provin- 
cial, Very Rev. Father Fulton, and the sermon was de- 
livered by the great Redemptorist preacher, Very Rev. 
F. W. Wayrick. The choir of St. Francis Xavier 
supplied the music, Gregorian chant. Before the dedi- 
cation, advantage was taken of the vast vacant space 
to hold a fair for the benefit of the church. The fair 
began on June 6th, netted a good sum and was closed 
in time to prepare for the dedication. 

With the administration of Father Merrick must be 
connected the establishment in 1882 of a church, St. 
Jean Baptiste, for the accommodation of the French 
Canadians within our parish limits. It was first served 
by Secular Priests. In 1900 the Fathers of the Blessed 
Sacrament got permission to labor in New York, and, 
with due consent, settled down on Seventy-Sixth Street 
near Third Avenue, occcupied the temporary French 
church there, and attracted a large number of pious 
worshipers to their Sanctuary. They are without 
parish limits; but the fruit of their labors is by no 
means diminished by that limitation. Their Daily Ex- 
position and Benediction bring people from far and 
near, especially since the erection of their new church 
on the corner of Lexington Avenue and Seventy-Sixth 
Street. 

In 1886 the northeastern section of our parish was 
cut off by the foundation of the Church of Our Lady 



HOME RULE COMPLETE 139 

of Good Counsel on Ninetieth Street between Third 
and Second Avenues on the west and East River on 
the east. The parish of St. Cecelia bounds it on the 
north. There are two flourishing schools, one for boys 
under the management of Christian Brothers, aided by 
lay teachers, and a second conducted by the Sisters of 
Charity. Over 1,600 children are educated in these 
schools. The slice cut off from our limits was a large 
one, but what remained was enough to tax our accom- 
modations both in Church and School. 

Immediately before leaving St. Lawrence's, Father 
Merrick took steps to make us independent in every re- 
spect. Hitherto the property of the Church had been 
held under the charter of St. Francis Xavier's College, 
as our church was not incorporated, but though in the 
past the church had been exempted from certain forms 
of taxation through connection with a college, still it 
seemed desirable to have a separate charter. Accord- 
ingly application was made to the legislature of the 
State of New York praying for a charter. A bill was 
introduced in answer to the petition of David Andrew 
Merrick, Charles Petitdemange, Edward McTammany, 
Edward Xavier Fink and William Moylan, was passed, 
and signed by the Governor to take effect immediately. 
Organization took place on June 30th, Father Merrick 
being chosen President and Treasurer of the Church 
of St. Ignatius Loyola. From this we see that it had 
been the intention thus early to change the name of the 
church. In due time all the title to the church prop- 
erty was made over to the new corporation. 



CHAPTER XL 
The Old Order Passeth. 

The gradual transformation of the city by new 
modes of travel, and above all, the growth of York- 
ville from the village stage to an integral and con- 
tinuous section of the whole metropolis, had been per- 
fected in the days of Father Merrick. He had planned 
for a new order of things, and found generous response 
from the people. He had done his work well and was 
promoted to a wider field of action on August 31st, 
1888. He might have considered himself entitled to 
a rest after seven years of strenuous work; but Father 
Merrick was not one of the resting kind. Besides, he 
had the religious spirit which deemed it a privilege to 
execute with alacrity whatever was entrusted to him 
by God through superiors. His success in Yorkville 
marked him out as an executive head for St. Francis 
Xavier's, and thither he went for the usual term of 
three years. But he will be soon back, an older, a 
feebler man, but with spirit enough yet left to do much 
good, and to enjoy the fruit of his earlier efforts. He 
will find "the village" erased from the soil, but much 
of the old family spirit will remain to greet him on his 
return. 

Fathers William Walsh and Edward Fink, both 
of feeble health, and private students of Theology, 
were each under the care of Father Merrick for a year. 
The former in 1886-7 left his impress on the Sanctuary 

140 



THE OLD ORDER PASSETH 141 

Boys and the Boys' Sodality, and gave assistance now 
and again in the parish; the latter is still remembered 
as director of the parochial school in 1887-1888. In 
that same year Fr. Merrick mentions in his notes 
Father McTammany as sent to him, particularly for 
the visitation of the parish. Fr. Petit after a long resi- 
dence retired for good, much to the regret of his peni- 
tents and of the children. He was succeeded by Father 
Nash and by the most permanent of our workers, 
Father Massi. 

Three days after the retirement of Father Merrick 
he was succeeded by Fr. Jeremiah O'Connor as Su- 
perior. Besides the two already mentioned, there re- 
mained from the old staff Fathers Walker and Moylan 
and Father Patrick Gleason, late Master of Novices at 
West Park, who took care of the Industrial Home and 
the Sisters of Mercy. In his administration Father 
O'Connor was thrifty, in all things save one, sparing 
of expenses, and laying by all that he could for the con- 
struction of the new church. The one exception to his 
thriftiness was in the decoration of the altar on great 
festivals, such as Christmas, Forty Hours, Holy Thurs- 
day and Easter Sunday. In addition to his own good 
taste and his personal love for the beauty of the 
Lord's house, he brought with him traditions of lavish 
expenditure for the sanctuary in the Immaculate of 
Boston and in St. Francis Xavier's in this city. 
Nothing was too good or too rich for the Eucharistic 
Guest, no expense too great to show the reverence of 
the Church for her Spouse. Flowers, evergreens, 
statues, lights, whatever could serve to adorn the altars, 
were pressed into service and arranged with enlight- 



142 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

ened, artistic touches. Never had the people of St. 
Lawrence's seen such elaborate decorations, and their 
appreciation was shown by the crowds who thronged 
the church on these occasions. 

In the fall of 1888 use was made of the old church 
to hold a fair for the construction of a new home for 
St. Lawrence's Academy. The benches were removed, 
and in their place were erected booths for the various 
sections and tables. Some of the most prominent men 
in the city, from the mayor down, visited the fair and 
left generous contributions behind them. The receipts 
were abundant beyond all expectation. The Sisters 
were able to make good the preliminary expense of 
strengthening the floor, and their offering to restore 
the benches was changed to the purchase of chairs to 
be used in the church, thereafter turned into a hall. 
The chanting and recitation of the Office of the Dead 
by the school-boys was a striking innovation. 

Father O'Connor was a man of sedentary habits, 
little inclined to go abroad, generally reserved with 
people, a prodigious worker as a student and a most 
painstaking preacher. He always wrote out and com- 
mitted to memory whatever he spoke. To one less 
gifted with memory power, this would be a slavish 
program, but in his case one reading, or at most two, 
of his manuscript was sufficient to make him master of 
his subject. He had a vivid, Irish fancy, a copious 
flow of words, a love of figurative language, and 
together with all this, a profound knowledge of the 
principles of oratory. His sermons were finished, 
elevated, scholarly, perhaps too florid in style. He 
certainly was so in his younger days. In his eyes the 



THE OLD ORDER PASSETH 143 

word of God was entitled to all the finish that art and 
talent could give it. He may have at times soared 
aloft beyond the capacity of some of his hearers to 
follow him, but they did not refuse on that account 
to be among his listeners. 

In his working hours he was always serious, even 
intense, for he was always working for God, and 
nothing- was good enough for Him. Yet in the hours 
allotted for recreation he could be as lively, almost as 
frisky, as a small boy. He could sing to the delight 
of his listeners, tell stories, mimic, recount experiences 
in the class-room or in travel that made the time of 
recreation all too short. When that was over, he was 
the serious, hard-working religious once more, ready 
for trying duties for another half day. He had two 
loves on earth, his native Ireland and the Church of 
God. The latter occupied his chief thoughts, and 
claimed his most earnest efforts. With regard to the 
former, she absorbed his free moments, and captivated 
him equally whether she had the tear or the smile in 
her eye. This was the subject of a lecture he delivered 
in the hall of the transmuted church shortly after his 
arrival here. Those who had admired his lofty ideals, as 
unfolded in noble and graceful language and gesture 
in the pulpit, learned that he was not only a fervent 
Priest, but also a warm Patriot. His convictions and 
sympathies were strong and fervid. His devotion to 
his native land was akin to worship; it was treasured 
in the depths of his heart to be exposed on rare oc- 
casions, but never in mere frothy verbiage, to win pass- 
ing applause. It was like family love, too sacred for 
display before the eyes of the unsympathetic. Its dis- 



144 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

play before the audience in Yorkville was a revelation 
of a noble heart, it won unstinted applause and admira- 
tion from the audience, and filled the bosoms of the 
Fathers with feelings of admiration and gratitude. 

In the summer of 1890 Father Russo came to re- 
place Father Gleason in the Church, and to conduct 
the quarterly meetings of the clergy of the arch- 
diocese. He had moreover charge of the Girls' So- 
dality which he conducted with his usual ability. Too 
short was his stay here where he effected much good ; 
but obedience called him away to organize a parish for 
the Italians in Elizabeth Street. Those who had 
profited by his ministrations were inclined to follow 
him down town, but he gave them clearly to under- 
stand that his time and zeal and energy must be en- 
listed in the cause of his own parishioners, who could 
find but few who were able and willing to serve them, 
while Catholics on the West Side and Fifth Avenue 
would not fail to have their wants supplied. 

The following item gathered from the history of 
our activities in the year 1889-90 will not be without 
interest here. "The Sodalities seem to be on a better 
footing this year than last. As the Young Ladies' So- 
dality, till now existing in this church, is in accordance 
with privileges received by the Sisters of Charity from 
Rome and exists chiefly for the pupils and ex-pupils 
of the Academy, the Fathers thought it proper to estab- 
lish for the Young Ladies of the parish a Sodality 
affiliated to the Roman Prima Primaria, without dis- 
countenancing that established by the Sisters. The un- 
dertaking succeeded brilliantly. The Young Men's 
and Boys' Sodalities have been somewhat reorganized 



THE OLD ORDER PASSETH 145 

with promise of great success." Those who belonged 
to the Young Ladies' Sodality twenty-five years ago 
will hardly fail to perceive in the above quotation the 
hand of Father Massi, whose pet institution in the 
parish up to the day of his death was the Young 
Ladies' Sodality. An obvious explanation of the im- 
provement of the status of the Young Men's and Boys' 
Sodalities is the presence on the staff of Father George 
Quin who took charge of these two on his arrival here. 
His long experience with young men and boys in Bel- 
gium and in Fordham enabled him to get results which 
his more aged and less experienced predecessors could 
not achieve. Like results attended his superintendence 
of the parochial school. When the commencement 
exercises took place on the 1st and 2nd of July, 1890, 
the children, boys and girls, acquitted themselves so 
well that many were unwilling to believe that they be- 
longed to our parochial school, but imagined that they 
were lent for the occasion by the Academy. Subse- 
quent appearances have made us familiar with the good 
work performed in our school. 

The terrible tunnel disaster of February, 1891, was 
fatal not only to passengers on the train but to Father 
O'Connor. The Fathers were on hand to render 
spiritual assistance to the wounded and dying. Among 
the rest the Superior ventured out poorly protected 
against the cold. He did not descend into the tunnel 
with Father Walker, but crossed over to the drug-store 
where he was liable to be called to give aid. He re- 
turned to the house chilled through. The doctor was 
called in, and a trained nurse secured at once, as the 
case was considered grave. The best specialist was 



146 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

consulted, but he would give no hope. Father O'Con- 
nor, leading a sedentary life from youth, had no re- 
serve strength to combat his attack. His heart, lungs 
and kidneys were affected, and the end was near. He 
lingered from the evening of the 23rd to the morning 
of the 27th when he died at 4 :40 A. M. He said he 
was not afraid to die, as he had rehearsed the act for 
many years. He preferred to be alone with God in his 
sickness, as he could thus better give expression to his 
faith and his love. 

Rev. Father Campbell, the Provincial, said the 
funeral Mass, a low one, as usual with Jesuits. There 
was no speaking, but the obsequies were honored by 
the presence of the Archbishop, Monsignori Preston, 
McDonnell and Farley and about fifty priests. Inter- 
ment took place in Fordham College grounds. 

Three days after the funeral of Father O'Connor, 
that is, on March 5th, word came to Father Massi, the 
locum tenens, that Father Francis McCarthy had been 
appointed Superior at St. Lawrence's, and in the even- 
ing the news was followed by the Superior himself. 
Strong, healthy, a good scholar and a good speaker, of 
wide experience in the ministry both as a secular priest 
on the mission for eleven years in the diocese of Pitts- 
burgh, and as a leader of the Missionary Band in the 
eastern States for several years, he was well equipped 
for his new post. As he is still with us, and bids fair, 
we hope, to remain many more years, propriety will not 
allow many words about his administration. 

The new church was ever before his mind. He 
continued Father O'Connor's thrifty preparation of 
funds for the projected building, and left behind him 
the goodly sum of 127,000 dollars invested at 



THE OLD ORDER PASSETH 147 

4 per cent, interest and over t#l KOO«ftftft» dol- 
lars in bank. He also consulted an architect 
on the proposed new church, went over the 
ground and explained his views and wishes. The plans 
were carefully drawn up, but were not accepted by 
the committee whose duty it was to pass upon them. 
This caused a further delay in commencing work on 
the building so long awaited. However, except for 
sentimental reasons there was no hardship. The base- 
ment was yet sufficient to satisfy the essential require- 
ments of the parish. Meantime, while things were sta- 
tionary as regards construction, Father McCarthy got 
the idea that the work might be better prosecuted by 
someone else. Accordingly he asked to be relieved of 
his burden, and his request was granted by Rev. Father 
Provincial. Father Neil N. McKinnon was appointed 
Superior of St. Lawrence on July 31st, 1893, and 
Father McCarthy was assigned to the pastorate of St. 
Aloysius Church in Washington. The following ac- 
count of his fellow-laborers, from his pen, will not be 
without interest. 

"A few words as to the personnel of the Staff dur- 
ing my incumbency. Four were with me but a short 
time. Fathers Harpes, Denis Lynch, Reid and Patrick 
Murphy, Father Harpes being chosen Rector of St. 
Peter's, Jersey City; Father Lynch addicted to the 
same house, and Father Reid long in Philadelphia. Fr. 
Murphy came bearing a letter from Fr. Jerge, Vice- 
Provincial, setting forth that tho' the bearer was now 
not very well he would soon be a "powerful coadjutor." 
This was in a sense prophetic, for Father was soon 
removed to Fordham to lead an out-door life, and be 



148 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

convenient to the Society's God's Acre, wherein he was 
soon laid to rest. Father Petit was aged and able to do 
but little work, but was dear to all because of his 
geniality and sweet charity. Father David Walker had 
charge of the Parish School and Sunday School. He 
wielded two scourges, called respectively but not re- 
spectfully homeopathy and allopathy. Only the little 
less than Angelic altogether escaped daily doses of the 
former. Brusque, abrupt, and plain spoken was he, but 
kind-hearted, and devoted to the poor and sick. His al- 
most invariable pulpit theme was "Hell," as "Judgment" 
was that of the great Dominican Missionary, St. Vin- 
cent Ferrer. Father Nash's activities were confined to 
the House of the Good Shepherd — a parish in itself. 
The good Father was slightly vain of his record as 
Chaplain in the Federal Army during the War of Se- 
cession. Any evidence of this was suppressed by 
Father Walker's gibes about the fleetness of Billy Wil- 
son's Zouaves when fleeing from the enemy at Pensa- 
cola. Father George Quin, then, as now, a noted Di- 
rector of Boys' Sodalities, was wont to require as an 
essential prerequisite for admission to the same, not 
heights of holiness scaled, but feet and inches above 
their soles. The devotional exercises were well at- 
tended, but the old church was thereafter crowded. 
Sparring was the chief feature, and the onlookers 
thirsted for gore even as the frequenters of the Roman 
Coliseum witnessing the gladiatorial combats in the 
arena below. Father George even then believed in pre- 
paredness. Some dullards could not understand how 
fierce athletics could help make ascetics. These he 
pitied." 



THE OLD ORDER PASSETH 149 

"Father Robert Fulton, after a long, successful career 
as teacher, Rector, Provincial, and successor to the uni- 
versally beloved Father Treanor, came back, broken in 
health, but expert as ever in hitting living targets with 
arrows of wit with which his quiver was always full. 
I recall this saying : 'Had Abraham been a woman he 
would have insisted on sacrificing Isaac' To most of 
the parishioners he remained as inscrutable, if not as 
silent, as the sphinx. A peerless pair of Romans were 
then of the staff — Fathers Cardella and Massi. The 
former had a checkered Missionary career in Central 
America. His learning was vast and varied, his man- 
ner simple, unaffected, cordial, his good humor peren- 
nial. In attire he was singular and manifold. His 
preaching was accompanied by evolution from apparel, 
and ended with involution in the same. 1 One day he 
came to the writer with a gleam in his eye and a smile 
expressive neither of sympathy nor sadness, and said : 
'He who, as President of Nicaragua, banished me from 
the Country is now in New York, an exile. 3 Doubtless, 
in the higher part of his soul dwelt immovable Christian 
Charity. Outside the realm of the voluntary, it was 
otherwise. 'Tantaene animis Coelestibus irae ?' Father 
Massi had the unique distinction of birth in the Vati- 
can, his father belonging to the Papal household. For 
more than a score of years he had labored in Ecuador, 
and was at times confessor to Garcia Moreno. Martyr 
President of that Republic which, in 1870, was the only 
government in the world to protest against the sac- 
rilegious spoliation of Pius IX. Learning, linguistics, 

father Cardella was born and brought up in the mild climate of Central 
Italy and spent many years in Central America. The change in his old 
days from tropical heat to the variable temperatures of New York forced 
him to take unusual precautions against the cold. 



150 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

natural science were his possession. So, too, an inex- 
haustible fund of humor and a power of mimicry, de- 
lightful in its exercise even to those who were its vic- 
tims. He long was director of the Young Ladies' So- 
dality, the numbers and fervor of which were speedily 
progressive. Its weekly meetings gave him a foretaste 
of the joys of Paradise, as he listened ecstatically to the 
litanies and hymns, believing the songstresses qualified 
to join with the angelic choirs. In him were blent the 
outstanding qualities of dove and serpent. Last to be 
named, but worthy of fuller notice than the present 
booklet will allow, is P. F. Dealy. Much of his life as 
a Priest was spent in St. Francis Xavier's. He was 
long Director of the Xavier Union, developed into the 
Catholic Club, through which he exercised great influ- 
ence for good. He was President of St. John's Col- 
lege, Fordham, and his large and influential circle of 
friends enabled him to do much for the upbuilding of 
that seat of learning whose Diamond Jubilee was lately 
celebrated. Relieved of that responsible duty, he came 
to spend in this parish his few remaining years. With 
his wonted zeal he threw himself into the performance 
of the duties assigned him — chief of which was the 
direction of the Women's Sodality. His well prepared 
and earnestly delivered instructions were very effec- 
tive. One evening in December, just after the Sodality 
meeting, he was called to visit a dying person. He con- 
tracted pneumonia of which he died within a week. In 
the beginning of the illness the community physician 
was called in, and diagnosed the case as pneumonia. 
Drs. Lummis and O'Dwyer were brought in for con- 
sultation and endorsed Dr. McGillicuddy's diagnosis. 



THE OLD ORDER PASSETH 151 

"So Father Dealy inquired whether he would die that 
night ; they answered that, in his condition, an accurate 
forecast could not be made. When the physicians were 
gone, Fathers Superior and Walker brought him the 
Viaticum. Entering the room they were surprised to 
see the dying man, robed in a blanket, kneeling on the 
bare floor. The Sacraments administered, they had to 
lift him into the bed from which he was never to rise. 
He was buried on Christmas Eve, in the Fordham 
graveyard of the Society. Not a few, who did not 
know the warmth of his apostolic heart and his active 
sympathy for God's poor, opined that he sought to be 
chiefly, if not almost exclusively, the 'Apostle of the 
Genteel.' The fact is that he was the volunteer em- 
ployment agent of man and maid servant, and in their 
behalf used his influence with Master and Mistress. 
The following edifying incident may fitly close this 
short sketch. There came one day to the Rectory of 
St. Francis Xavier a young Irish girl asking help to 
get employment. Father Dealy was called to see her, 
and inquired what work she had been used to. She 
replied : 'None out of my own home.' 'But what can 
you do ?' The girl modestly answered : 'A little illum- 
inating.' 'Bring me some of your work.' In a few 
days the girl returned with samples. Father Dealy 
was much pleased with them, and requested to be al- 
lowed to keep them for awhile. He took them to Tif- 
fany's. He was told that such work was better than 
any they could secure in this country, adding they 
would buy all equal in merit to the samples shown. 
The girl worked hard, saved money enough to take 
sufficient dower to a cloister, which she entered, and 



152 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

in which she taught the Sisters her fine Art. Many of 
you have seen and admired illumination done by her, 
or her pupils in Newark and Hunts Point. 

Nothing deserving special record took place ; but the 
Church Societies, Sacred Heart League, Young Ladies' 
Sodality and the Bona Mors flourished. The most 
generous giver was a woman who had worked hard 
her life long. She gave her all, with the modest re- 
quest that her name be carved on an altar in the new 
Church." 



CHAPTER XII. 

Ring in the New. 

Father Neil N. McKinnon was bora on May 27th, 
1842, at Grand River, Prince Edward Island. Being 
called to the priesthood, he entered the Seminary at 
Montreal and was raised to the deaconate, but left the 
Seminary to enter the Society at Sault-au-Recollet, 
Montreal, on October 6th, 1868. After finishing his 
novitiate he was sent to Fordham to teach, act as prefect 
and review his philosophy in his third year of residence 
there. In September, 1873, he began his theology at 
Woodstook and by special privilege was ordained to the 
priesthood in the spring of 1874. In three years more he 
completed his course of theology, and in 1877 he went 
to Fordham where he was Minister for three years. 
Next we find him employed at Jersey City, as Prefect 
of Studies in the College, and preacher and confessor 
in the church. For five years he was employed at St. 
Francis Xavier's in church work. He was thus 
thoroughly experienced in all the labors of the Society 
when he went to Frederick, Md., for his Third Year of 
Probation in 1886. During the Lent of 1887 he had 
missionary experience, as is usual, and on the comple- 
tion of the year he was ready for his life's work in 
New York. Of the remaining twenty years of his 
earthly existence, six were spent in parochial duties at 
St. Francis Xavier's, and the last fourteen as Superior 
in Yorkville. 

153 



154 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

With Father McKinnon came Father John Prender- 
gast and Father Noonan to replace Father Walker, 
transferred to Woodstock, Md., and Father Cardella 
summoned to St. Francis Xavier's, to remain there 
until his death. Father Lynch also went to Woodstock 
for the purpose of study. Fathers Matthew McDon- 
ald and Patrick Gleason, belonging to the Missionary 
Band, had made this residence their home while disen- 
gaged from their arduous labors; but at the end of the 
year they were relieved, and went, the one to be Min- 
ister at Frederick, Md., and the other to be the Spiritual 
Father in the community of St. Francis Xavier's. 
There remained six Fathers, of whom two, Fathers 
Fulton and Petitdemange, were old and feeble. 

The first move inaugurated by Father McKinnon 
was to establish a separate Sodality for the married 
men. It promised well from the beginning, start- 
ing with 115 members. On the Sunday within the 
Octave of the Immaculate Conception there was a gen- 
eral reception for all the Sodalities save that of the 
Young Ladies. These were so numerous that with 
them present the church could not hold all who had a 
right to be on hand. Accordingly they had a separate 
reception on April 3rd, which was honored by the pres- 
ence of the Bishop of Brooklyn, presumably on the in- 
vitation of Father Massi who flattered himself as 
counted amongst the Bishop's friends. The process of 
interior growth in the supernatural life was dear to the 
new pastor, and was promoted by every means in his 
power during the whole period of his sway. For 
spiritual as well as for future financial aid there was a 
census of the parish made by the Fathers in 1893-94. 



RING IN THE NEW 155 

Personal contact in the home is always productive of 
good, and was resorted to in order to find out the con- 
dition of things. There is no exact record of the num- 
ber of parishioners at that date, but certain it is that 
there was a considerable increase since the last census 
taken by Father Merrick. 

In 1894 the last division of the parish took place 
when all the territory north of Ninety-Fourth Street 
between Fifth Avenue and Third was ceded to the pro- 
posed church of St. Francis de Sales. The new parish 
was organized in November, and on the 8th of Decem- 
ber of the following year the cornerstone of the sacred 
edifice was blessed and laid by Monsignor Farley, then 
Vicar General, and a few days later consecrated 
Bishop of Zeugma, i. p. i., now Cardinal and Arch- 
bishop of New York. This is the sixth church erected 
within the original limits of St. Lawrence's parish, and 
the fourth parish carved out of the original Yorkville 
territory. 

Father McKinnon did not forget the ambition of his 
predecessors to erect a church worthy of the new sur- 
roundings and worthy of the generosity of the early 
parishioners, who had stinted themselves to respond to 
the various calls made upon them in the interest of 
religion. As the parish grew in spite of the pruning 
process that had been kept up since 1867, and Catholics 
increased in wealth as well as in number, ideas ex- 
panded too. From his long residence on Sixteenth 
Street and familiarity with St. Francis Xavier's 
Church, Father McKinnon would be satisfied with 
nothing less imposing than that beautiful edifice. Plans 
had been drawn up for church, residence and college 



156 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

by Mr. O'Connor for Father Treanor. They might 
have suited his ambition, as they certainly would have 
suited his purse in 1879, but they would not suit him 
ten years later. Mr. Keeley made plans for Father 
Fulton which were not accepted and Mr. Poole drew 
up more ambitious plans for Father McCarthy, which 
in turn were rejected. New plans were called for, and 
many competitors sent in their designs. After mature 
deliberation the firm of Schickel and Ditmars won the 
prize. The church according to their plans and specifi- 
cations would require a good sum of money ; but a good 
sum of money was already on hand, more could be 
borrowed, and the congregation would willingly con- 
tribute whatever was necessary. 

There were few clergymen in New York more popu- 
lar than Father McKinnon. There were few, if any, 
on whose head the benedictions of the poor were show- 
ered more abundantly. He knew the city and was well 
known ; he knew the parish by this time, and was uni- 
versally loved by rich and poor, by Catholic and non- 
Catholic. He felt in 1895 that he could follow out 
his ambition to dedicate to the service of God one of 
the most imposing churches in the city, if not in the 
country. God's honor demanded the best, and the new 
locality would support the demand. At the annual 
meeting of the corporation of St. Ignatius Church on 
June 24th, 1895, he could lay claim to 147,900 dollars 
to begin construction, and could raise by bond and mort- 
gage on the church property a much larger amount 
which the revenues of the parish would meet in time. 
Accordingly work began in 1895 and was pushed along 
as fast as good workmanship would permit. On July 



RING IN THE NEW 157 

30th, 50,000 dollars were borrowed from the Title 
Guarantee and Trust Co. to continue and complete the 
work. The rising walls and signs of completion of the 
long-expected structure invited many a donation from 
parishioner and friend, which, without these signs of 
progress, might have remained hidden in pocketbooks 
or have been diverted to other uses. 

Work had progressed so far by December, 1898, that 
steps were taken for the dedication. The ceremony 
was set for Sunday, December 11th, and the Arch- 
bishop of New York, Most Rev. Michael Corrigan, 
officiated, assisted by Very Rev. Edward I. Purbrick, 
S. J. Provincial, and Thomas J. Gannon, S. J., as Dea- 
cons of Honor. By special privilege of the Holy See, 
St. Ignatius of Loyola was chosen titular patron with 
St. Lawrence O'Toole as co-titular. The main altar 
in the new church is dedicated to St. Ignatius and the 
main altar in Lower Church is dedicated to St. Law- 
rence, the feasts of both saints being celebrated with 
an octave, of equal rite of the first class. The cele- 
brant of the Mass of Dedication was His Excellency 
Most Rev. Sebastian Martinelli, O. S. A., Apostolic 
Delegate to the United States. Rev. D. A. Merrick, 
S. J., was Assistant. Rev. T. J. Campbell, S. J. and T. 
E. Murphy, S. J., Deacons of Honor, with Rev. 
Francis McCarthy, S. J., Deacon, and Rev. Edward 
McTammany, S. J., Sub-Deacon of the Mass. Right 
Rev. Bernard McQuaid, Bishop of Rochester, preached. 
Solemn Pontifical Vespers were celebrated by Right 
Rev. Bishop McDonnell. The preacher was Rev. 
William O'B. Pardow, S. J., the Master of Ceremonies 
was Rev. T. J. McCloskey, S. J. 



158 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

A word of description for those who have not seen 
our church. Running along a quiet, clean, respectable 
and well-made and well-kept street, it fronts on 
Fourth Avenue, long since named Park Avenue, one 
of the finest avenues in America. The site is elevated, 
the air clear and salubrious. The rich we have some- 
times, "the poor we have always with us," as the 
church stands almost midway between the richest and 
poorest quarters of the neighborhood. The frontage 
is 87 feet and the depth on Eighty-Fourth Street is 193 
feet. When completed, if the plan is ever carried out, 
there will be twin towers rising above the pavement 
210 feet. The proximity of higher apartment houses 
may deter our successors from completing the plan, lest 
our church seem dwarfed. But as the towers, as con- 
templated, form a perfect whole, and are extremely 
graceful, and in perfect harmony with what stands, it 
is to be hoped that the architectural monstrosities north, 
south and east of us will not prevent the exterior from 
suggesting the beauty and the richness of the interior. 
Two ungainly six-footers will never detract from the 
grace and symmetry of the young boy who skips along 
between them. Trinity Church has lost none of its 
beauty by the construction of skyscrapers around it, 
though it would be a sorry sight without its spire. 

With a look at the brown-tiled roof and the Indiana 
limestone walls, let us pass in. Three sets of bronze 
double doors give admission and an ample exit. To 
reach these we have to mount thirteen granite steps 
in two series of five and eight with a level platform 
between. Six bronze hand-rails aid the ascent and de- 
scent of the feeble, and in winter prove a welcome sup- 




New Church 



RING IN THE NEW 159 

port to persons of all ages. In front of the large doors 
opening outward there is a comfortable level place to 
stand on and look around before entering or leaving, 
and within there are two more bronze swinging doors 
with large plate-glass panels for light and to exclude 
the wintry blasts. The outer doors are always open 
during services and the inner ones open or closed, as 
needed. Within these are three vestibules well lighted 
when all the doors are shut. The central vestibule is 
17 ft. 8 in. 'by 30 ft. 5 in. and those on the side are 
13 ft. 3 in. by 17 ft. 8 in. All three are paved in rich 
Tennessee marble, and are heated each by two radia- 
tors. In the north vestibule there is a bronze door 
leading to the organ loft, and in the southerly one a 
similar door leads to the parlors and parochial resi- 
dence. Mounting five easy, marble steps we come to 
three more sets of double doors of leather, richly 
finished and moving on easy hinges outwardly. Here 
we reach the floor of the church. Immediately above 
our heads is the choir gallery reaching back to the east 
wall of the church. In front of us there is a space of 
160 ft. by 78 ft. and 70 ft. high. The Sanctuary 
occupies 44 ft. of the total length. A double row of 7 
red, highly polished, monolithic granite columns with 
Corinthian capitals divides the church into three sec- 
tions. Abstracting from the pews, and supplying in 
imagination the wonderful marble flooring of St. 
Paul's outside the Walls in Rome, the interior is some- 
what reminiscent of that beautiful basilica, but on a 
more modest scale. The ceiling is arched, or triple 
arched, the maximum height of the centre being 70 ft., 
while the side aisles are on a more modest scale. 



160 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

The surface of the ceiling is broken by heavy mould- 
ings, dividing the space into panels of geometric pat- 
terns, all richly decorated in gold and subdued colors. 
The same scheme is carried out in the ornamentation 
of the side aisles whose ceilings are divided by circular 
domes between the pillars. The half dome above the 
main altar has for its main decoration a picture of the 
crucifixion in obscure tints surrounded by a conven- 
tional vine in scrolls on either side, diminishing in size 
as they recede from the spring of the arch to the apex. 
The wall space between the dome and the ceiling is 
decorated by a large figure of Christ seated and sur- 
rounded by the Blessed Virgin, St. Michael, Sts. Peter 
and Paul, Moses and Elias representing the Old and 
the New Law. The domes above the side altars are 
decorated like that above the main altar, but on a lesser 
scale to conform to the diminished space. 

Four large, pendant clusters of gilt brass hang from 
the apex of the central dome and support and conceal 
each ninety- seven electric bulbs, an ornament by day, 
a source of illumination by night, and beside them on 
the median line are four shields bearing on a blue 
ground the coat of arms of Leo XIII over the sanc- 
tuary, next is that of the Archdiocese of New York, 
followed by the familiar one of the Society, and of the 
United States as consecrated to Mary Immaculate. On 
the spandrels on either side of the central arch are 
medallions in gold to be filled up with portraits of the 
prophets on the Gospel side, and of the doctors of the 
Church on the epistle side. Only two of these have 
been executed so far. 

The sanctuary railing of rich Pavonazzo marble on 




Main Altar 



RING IN THE NEW 161 

bronze is raised above the floor of the church by one 
broad step carpeted in green. Within the railing is a 
space of about five feet on the lower level, then an 
ascent by three easy steps to the main level of the sanc- 
tuary. The predella is reached by five more steps, suf- 
ficiently high to make the celebrant easily visible wher- 
ever there is an unobstructed view. The main altar of 
Pavonazzo marble is ornamented with bronze heavily 
gilded, outlining the various divisions, as steps, angles, 
sides, panels, and bearing precious stones on the fore- 
part of the tabernacle. The distinctive feature of the 
altar is a baldachino supported on four arms of bronze 
supported by four twisted columns whose depressions 
are ornamented by bronze-gilt bands representing ivy 
leaves. On the sanctuary wall, Gospel side, over the 
sacristy door is a large mosaic of the wounding of St. 
Ignatius in the castle of Pampeluna. The indomitable 
character of the soldier is well expressed by his uncon- 
cern at his fractures, and his anxious looks at the at- 
tacking French. On the opposite side of the sanctuary 
he is meekly presenting his rule to Pope Paul III, and 
with two of his companions asking for authorization 
for his nascent community. The sombre cassock con- 
trasts strikingly with the gorgeous uniform of the 
Swiss guard, the scarlet of the Cardinal in attendance 
and the vesture of the Pope. Behind the altar and 
partly concealed by it from the congregation is a repre- 
sentation of St. Ignatius received into glory, executed 
with masterly skill in the harmonious blending of in- 
numerable colors. These are the largest, if not the 
best, mosaics executed for this country, and are the 
work of Salviati and Company of Venice from the 



162 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

sketches of Professor Paoletti suggested by Father 
Hearn. 

Turning our backs, without irreverence, to the altar, 
we have before us at the foot of the church the organ 
loft with its grand organ by Hook and Hastings, once 
built across the loft, but now divided into two sections 
revealing between them an exquisite stained-glass win- 
dow representing the resurrection. By the division of 
the organ, light is secured for the gallery, and the same 
resonance for all the pipes, a result impossible when 
they were backed some by glass and others by stone. 
Above the gazer's head hangs a rich and beautifully 
designed Sanctuary Lamp costing over a thousand dol- 
lars. On the right, beside the first pillar is a richly 
carved pulpit with hood lighted by electricity when in 
use. A track formed of brass rods leads it to the cen- 
tre of the lower level of the sanctuary as occasion de- 
mands. On the right of the sanctuary against the 
west wall stands the Sacred Heart Altar of Pavonazzo 
marble, the gift of the Apostleship of Prayer. The cen- 
tral figure of the Sacred Heart, of heroic size, is flanked 
on the right by a statue of the Venerable Claude de la 
Columbiere, S. ]., and on the left by a statue of 
Blessed Margaret Mary, the one, the first preacher of 
the devotion to the Sacred Heart, and the other the 
recipient of our Lord's communication on the same. 
On the left of the sanctuary is the altar of the Blessed 
Virgin with her statue in the centre above the taber- 
nacle. On her right stands Isaias and on the left the 
Archangel Gabriel. 

At the ends of the transept there are two large 
stained glass windows. The nearest one on our right 




Choir and East Window 



RING IN THE NEW 163 

represents the apparition of our Lord to Blessed Mar- 
garet Mary in the Chapel of the Monastery of Paray 
le Monial. A small angel hovers in admiration to the 
right whilst a larger one seems to exhort the nun to 
heed the injunction of the Lord : "Hear ye Him." The 
coloring is light, rich and beautiful. Separated from 
this by a projecting pilaster is a larger window, dark 
shades of brown, black and purple predominating. It 
represents St. Joseph proclaimed Patron of the Uni- 
versal Church honored in Heaven by his Foster Son, 
while beneath are grouped Popes, Bishops, Doctors, 
Saints, who honored him on earth. Prominent amongst 
these are Pius IX and St. Teresa. Beneath the win- 
dow is the altar of St. Joseph with a larger statue of 
the saint as the striking feature. Though outside the 
sanctuary, the chapel and altar of St. Joseph are the 
most commodious in the church. On the north side of 
the transept in the first window, in light and pleasing 
hues, St. Ignatius is represented in his penitential garb, 
in the grotto of Manresa, kneeling, pen in hand, before 
a crucifix, and looking up to the Blessed Virgin who 
is supposed to be inspiring or dictating the words of 
the Spiritual Exercises. His instruments of penance 
lie on the floor of the grotto beside him. Separated 
from this window is another corresponding to the glory 
of St. Joseph at the opposite side. Its hues are sombre 
but rich. It represents the Saints of the Society in 
glory and the Blessed in a separate group below, con- 
fessors and martyrs, the latter with triumphant palms, 
denoting their sufferings and victories. Beneath the 
window is the altar of the Jesuit saints in their own 
chapel. 



1»U FIFTY VELARS IN YORKVILLE 

Eight windows of stained glass on either side of the 
clerestory give abundant but subdued light to the body 
of the church, while fifteen large semi-circular win- 
dows illuminate the sides. They contain shields with 
conventional sacred symbols. These, too, are all of like 
Gained glass in conformity with those of the cleres- 
tory. The Baptistery occupies the place of one of the 
windows on the south side. Corresponding to the Bap- 
tistery is the pretty little altar of the Patrons of Youth, 
Saints Aloysius, Berchmans and Stanislaus, sur- 
mounted by three statues in purest Carrara marble. 
The Baptistery ushers the soul into the Kingdom of 
God. The three Boy Saints, of high and low degree, 
invite all comers to purity and nobility of action in 
the new life conferred upon them by the Sacrament of 
Regeneration, to contempt of merely temporal things, 
and love of what is truly lasting, virtue which endures 
in the everlasting possession of God. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

The Baptistery. 

This deserves a more lengthy mention, not only be- 
cause it is the most perfect and striking feature in the 
church., but because it set the pattern for all the other 
decorations and artistic designs. Father John Pren- 
dergast, a wonderfully earnest preacher, and a deep 
student of theology and Sacred Scripture, had con- 
ceived from his youth a keen admiration coupled with 
a deep devotion to St. John the Baptist. The char- 
acter of the Precursor of our Lord, his genuine 
humility, his love of truth, his hatred for shams, his 
contempt for vice and hypocrisy even in high places, 
his austere life of prayer, silence and fasting, made a 
strong appeal to his client, and inspired much of his 
preaching and teaching. One could not long listen to 
him without being impressed, and catching some of 
his enthusiasm for truth and supernatural virtue ; and 
for the Baptist, as the embodiment of all that is antag- 
onistic to the spirit of self-indulgence, time-serving and 
spineless profession of truth and of principle. Someone 
unknown to us, gifted with an abundance of this world's 
goods, caught the preacher's enthusiasm for the Bap- 
tist, and offered him means to erect a monument to his 
great model in the church about to be erected, if the 
authorities would permit. After due consideration and 
meditation in private, Father Prendergast concluded 
that an ornate Baptistery would give him the best op- 
portunity of expressing in stone and mosaic all that 
idi 



166 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

he could conceive of the life and merits of his patron. 
When his ideas assumed definite shape and were ap- 
proved by his friend, he laid before the Corporation 
the offer made of defraying all the expenses of a Bap- 
tistery, and his outline of what he would like to see 
done. At a meeting held on March 15th, 1897, the 
trustees gratefully accepted the proffered gift. 

The shrine was completed before any ornamentation 
was attempted in the interior of the Church, and was 
so artistic in design and execution that whatever was 
to be added in future must conform in taste and per- 
fection with the Baptistery. Much, of course, would 
have to be left to coming years, to carry out the in- 
tended decorations, but the inspiration of Father Pren- 
dergast was never lost sight of, and has been in a great 
measure realized at the present time. A booklet de- 
scribing the shrine, its art and symbolism, its theology 
and ascetic lessons, was published at the time, and de- 
serves to be more widely known and read by the 
parishioners of St. Ignatius than it is. They would 
prize more highly than they do one of the most beauti- 
ful pieces of sacred art in the United States. Nfc> 
apology is needed for extracting the following descrip- 
tive pages. 

Building. 

"The Baptistery Chapel of St. John the Baptist, has, 
as its name indicates, a two-fold purpose. First, it is 
a place specially set apart, as the ritual prescribes, for 
administering the fundamental sacrament of the Chris- 
tian law, and it is also a shrine in honor of the Saint 
with whom that sacrament is most closely connected. 



THE BAPTISTRY 167 

Like the rest of the church, it was built by Messrs. 
Schickel & Ditmars, and the various details — mosaics, 
font, altar — have all been carried out under their direc- 
tion, even when in the hands of special artists. To 
them the credit of the success is unquestionably due. 

"The Chapel is in the style of the Italian Renaissance 
of the early sixteenth century, and will compare favor- 
ably with the well-known memorial chapels of that 
period. It is twenty-eight feet high, and forms a 
semicircular apse to the south side of the church, the 
apse being divided, in harmony with classical tradi- 
tions, into three panels. The other half of the plan 
is gained by projecting into the church, so that the 
floor space is a circle with a diameter of fifteen feet. 
No material is used in the ornamentation of the Bap- 
tistery except mosaic and marble. The marble is Pavo- 
nazzo, bordered with red Numidian. The two blend 
beautifully with each other and with the general light 
and color scheme of the whole church and Baptistery. 
The marble work was done by Messrs. Batterson & 
Eisele, New York. 

The Dome. 

"The light is obtained from a semi-dome skylight, 
the glass having been made in this country from a for- 
mula discovered by Mr. Louis C. Tiffany. It is known 
as the 'Tiffany Favrile Glass.' It is far richer and more 
brilliant in color, and is interwoven more easily with 
itself than any other glass heretofore used in skylight 
work. 

"The dome continues harmoniously the architectural 
lines and colors of the marble and the mosaics. 



168 fifty years in yorkville 

The Screen. 

"The Baptistery is separated from the church by a 
wrought-i ron screen designed by Mr. William Schickel, 
the architect of the church. He has followed success- 
fully Renaissance motives. The work was executed by 
Mr. John Williams, an artist in metal, who has shown 
that it is possible to make in this country metal work 
of high artistic value. The screen is semi-circular in 
form; one-third is devoted to the gates, and crowning 
these there is a scroll, carrying the arms of the Society 
of Jesus; 'I. H. S.,' in combination with the cross, and 
the three nails. 

"The body of the screen is divided into a series of 
panels, each panel carrying a flaming sword. It is 
entirely of wrought work, with the exception of a few 
ornaments in the frieze, and illustrates what may be 
done with so obstinate a metal as iron, when the ham- 
mer is wielded by a skilled artisan under the guidance 
of an artist. 

The Pavement. 

"The pavement is from the design of Messrs. Hea- 
ton, Butler and Bayne, London, modified by Mr. John 
H. Buck, of the Ecclesiastical Department of the Gor- 
ham Company, New York, and manufactured in New 
York by the Gorham Company. It is a marble mosaic 
of rich but subdued colors. It represents the sea break- 
ing in a series of serpentine ripples on the shore of 
the step and screen. 

"A large fish resting on an anchor occupies the 
middle space before the font, and this idea is re- 



THE BAPTISTRY 169 

produced with some modifications in an ornamental 
foot-pace of a shell pattern immediately in front of the 
altar. 

"Shoals of smaller fishes are disporting in the waters 
on either side. From under the font four rivers empty 
into the sea. 

"Water-lilies and other acquatic plants fill up the in- 
terstices of the design. It is a marine picture of ex- 
treme grace and delicacy, and like the seals of that 
'ancient one of the sea, whose speech is sooth, the 
deathless Egyptian Proteus' 'sharp is the scent it 
breathes of the deeps of the salt sea.' — (Odys. IV.) 
As such, it harmonizes with the Baptistery, where the 
waters of regeneration flow. 

"But the chief interest centres in the symbolical 
meaning. The principle of symbolism is constantly 
coming up in the chapel, and it may be well to ex- 
plain it once for all. We are all conscious of the weak- 
ness of words to express any strong thought or emo- 
tion. We know too that with the limited vital force at 
our command what we spend on the expression is so 
much taken from the idea to be expressed. So that 
Herbert Spencer's curious paradox is not unfrequently 
true; the less we say, the more we mean. A mono- 
syllable may be more eloquent than a harangue, and 
even the high and mighty monosyllable may have to 
bow before the majesty of a look or gesture. Hence 
our deep-rooted tendency to blend words and acts to- 
gether, eking out one by the other, or again to com- 
press words into some sign or thing which shall em- 
body the idea and flash it from mind to mind with 
the least waste of energy in the transmission. Scrip- 



170 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

ture and liturgy never weary in the use of symbol- 
ism. 

"Every rite of sacrifice and sacrament is a symbol — 
that is to say, a sacred sign which repeats and re- 
echoes, in a language which even the deaf can hear, 
the spiritual truth enforced by the prayer or exhorta- 
tion. Now, it may be asked : 'What sermon in stone 
is the mosaic floor supposed to read us?' To begin 
with, two distinct symbolisms are connected with the 
sea — one found in the Scripture, the other in the 
very early Christian tradition. 

In the Old Testament, the stormy sea, all disquiet 
and bitterness, and unrest, dashing madly against man's 
home the land, tossing its waves to heaven in the vain 
attempt to quench the steadfast stars, was taken as 
Nature's parable of the Kingdom of Evil. Nor was it 
thought of as only something impersonal. A mys- 
terious being ruled it — Leviathan, Rahab, the crooked 
Serpent, the Dragon. Between the sea and heaven, be- 
tween Leviathan and God, there was ceaseless war. 
" 'The waters saw Thee, O God ! 

The waters saw Thee; they were afraid. 
The depths also trembled.'— Ps. LXXVI. 

"And again (Isaiah LI; 9.) : 'Awake, awake, put on 
strength, O arm of the Lord ; awake as in the days of 
old, the generations of ancient times. Art thou not it 
that cut the proud one (Rahab) in pieces, that pierced 
the dragon ?' One more glorious passage : 'In that day 
the Lord, with His sore and great and strong sword 
shall smite Leviathan, the fleeing Serpent, and Levia- 
than, the crooked Serpent, and he shall slay the dragon 
that is in the sea.' 



THE BAPTISTRY 171 

"Precisely the same view is taken in the New Testa- 
ment, where the Lord 'rebukes' the sea with the stern : 
'Be silent, put on thy muzzle,' as though He were 
speaking to a dog. (Mark IV: 39.) Maldonatus, with 
his usual keenness, remarks that rebuke is addressed 
to persons, not to things, and argues from the use of 
the word by Christ to the presence of the Demon-power 
in the physical, as well as in the moral world. So, too, 
the Apostles are fishermen, and the elect, fishes that 
have been drawn out of the sea in the Gospel net. And 
in the final consummation of all things, the sea shall 
give up the dead that are in it (Apoc. XX; 13), and 
St. John adds : 'I saw a new heaven and a new earth, 
for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away, 
and there is no more sea.' Briefly, there fore, in the Scrip- 
ture of the Old and the New Testaments, the sea, gen- 
erally speaking, represents the Kingdom of Satan, and 
the fish is Satan himself. Whereas, in the early Chris- 
tian ecclesiastical tradition as distinct from Scripture, 
the contrary symbolism obtains : the Fish is Christ, and 
the sea is divine. How can this curious difference be 
explained? By the merest accident, an acrostic, an 
anagram! Some devout Christian (earlier, it would 
seem, than the middle of the second century), remarked 
that the five letters of the one Greek word i-ch-th-y-s, 
fish, \xM* were the initials of five other Greek words 
giving respectively the name, character, person, and 
function of our Lord. 

i ii?<roO$ Jesus. 
X Xpiffrbs Christ. 
e eeoo Of God. 
t ra« The Son. 

2 2«r*>p Saviour. 



172 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

"There was no real connection or analogy at any 
time between our Lord and the Fish, as there is be- 
tween Him and the Lamb, or the Lion. And at the 
beginning, at least, however it may have been later 
on, none seems even to have been imagined. But on 
the strength of the Anagram, the Fish became every- 
where and instantly the symbol of the Son of God 
made Flesh. 

"The popularity of the symbol is easily understood. 
The dulness of the pagan mind, the grossness of the 
pagan imagination, had forced on Christians the 'Dis- 
ciplina Arcani,' the Discipline of the Secret, forbid- 
ding them to reveal fully their doctrines even to the 
Catechumens, until after Baptism. 'Cast not your 
pearls before swine' is the ever-repeated warning of 
the early Fathers. Besides, there was the fierce pagan 
cruelty, ready on the first suspicion of Christianity to 
tear the Christian to pieces or fling him to the wild 
beast. What a comfort, therefore, to have an emblem, 
a sacred sign which only Christians understood, which 
no outsider could even suspect, much less profane, 
summing up the one great truth on which all their 
hopes rested: 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.' 
Hence its universal use. The fish was graven on the 
ring with which the Christian lover pledged his troth, 
on the arms with which the Christian soldier went to 
battle, on the seal of the Christian merchant or lawyer. 
It was the ornament of the Christian household and it 
marked the place where the Christian dead were laid 
to rest. From the Gospel miracle of the loaves and 
fishes, it came in a special sense to be associated with 
the Eucharist — of all the mysteries the one most jeal- 



THE BAPTISTRY 173 

ously guarded against pagan profanation, in which the 
'Son of God, the Saviour' is received under the form 
of bread. More obvious still is the connection of the 
emblem with Baptism. Under this aspect the symbol- 
ism finds its fullest development in a line from Ter- 
tullian which has been woven into the mosaic pave- 
ment. 

"Nos pisciculi secundum ix®»> nostrum Jesum 
Christum in acqua nascimur. 'We, little fishes, are 
born again in water of our Fish Jesus Christ.' The 
'Fish' in its primary meaning stands for Christ — 
'the little fishes,' in a secondary sense, for Christians 
with whom Christ shares His divine nature, while the 
water is the water of Baptism, His instrument in bring- 
ing about the mighty transformation. It is hardly 
necessary to observe that in the design of the mosaic 
pavement the Christian tradition has been followed. 
The various details will have been sufficiently ex- 
plained if we add that the four streams emptying from 
under the font into the sea are typical of the river 
going out of Eden, and dividing and becoming four 
heads. 'And the name of the first is Phison, and of the 
second Gihon, and of the third Hiddekel or Tigris, 
and the fourth is Euphrates.' (Gen. II). 

"As already stated, the symbolism can lay no claim 
to a scriptural origin, and, with this splendid history 
behind it, it needs none. The Holy Spirit is as present 
in the teaching Church as in the written word. Born 
in the dark days of persecution, the emblem ceased 
when the persecution died out. From the accession of 
Constantine, the Cross took its place as the sign of 
Christianity, and after the fifth century, it is hardly 
found except as an archaic ornament. 



174 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

"But it will always be treasured by the Church as 
one of her dearest and most sacred memories, with a 
beauty and a pathos quite its own. It brings us back 
to the heroic ages of Christianity. It shows us not 
only how our fathers made the Incarnation the very 
centre of Religion — 'J esus Christ yesterday and to-day 
the same, yea, and forever' — but how they were pre- 
pared to do and suffer for their faith. 

"It recalls the pure Christian home, the hunted 
Christian life, the midnight gatherings in cave or cata- 
comb for the Christian mysteries, the dungeon, the 
torture-chamber, the arena. It glistens with the tears 
and blood of many martyrs. It is fragrant with the 
good odor of Christ at a time when to be a Christian 
meant the danger and often the certainty of mocking 
and scourgings, of bonds and of imprisonment, yea, 
of death. To us, religion comes on easier terms; if 
only we might practise it with something of the same 
spirit !" 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Mosaics. 

In his long term of office Father McKinnon had 
many co-workers and ^assistants who should not be 
passed over in silence in a history of the Parish. Some 
remained for a long time, comparatively speaking, some 
for a year or two only. Among the former may be 
mentioned Father Massi, already spoken of, who, with 
the exception of two years spent at Fordham, passed 
the remainder of his days in Yorkville, and from here 
passed to his resting place in the cemetery of the No- 
vitiate at Poughkeepsie. He had three passions, love 
of the Sodality, love of roses, love of Greek. The 
latter two he cultivated in his leisure moments. He is 
said to have been an adept in cooking, an art he must 
have picked up from the Indians of Ecuador on the 
eastern slope of the Andes ; but though it never proved 
fatal to him in his lonely mission, nor to any one here, 
if he ever tried his skill, it would be safe to say that 
he would find it hard to fill the place of a chef in one 
of our large hotels. As a cultivator of roses he 
showed much skill. For several years he visited 
Hart's Island as chaplain, at no little, sacrifice of 
time. His foreign accent and total ignorance of 
the Bowery dialect made communication between him 
and his unfortunate charge a difficult feat. However, 
he could say Mass, which was of obligation, and he 
could hear confessions when requested, which probably 

175 



176 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

was not often, howsoever much needed. After two years 
of debility and periods of serious illness he died on 
September 8th, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, 1810. 
His devotion was rewarded by joining in the rejoicings 
of Heaven on our Lady's birthday. 

Father Fulton, once Superior, came to reside here 
with his Socius, Father Pardow, while the new college 
of St. Francis Xavier was under construction, and re- 
turned once more to do whatever work his failing 
health would permit him to accomplish. After two 
years he sought a milder climate, but failed to recuper- 
ate, as has been already said. 

Father Joseph Desribes was the last representative 
of "those admirable French Fathers" as they were 
named by Father Merrick. Though ending his days 
here, he had never been a member of the New York 
and Canada Mission, but came to us via Cincinnati and 
Alabama. He was born in the province of Auvergne, 
France, July 30th, 1830, of a noted Catholic and royal- 
ist family. Like another Washington, he distinguished 
himself by cutting down a tree in his childhood, a 
Liberty Tree, to him an emblem more of irreligion 
than of Republicanism. Like Washington he did not 
deny the charge, but defended himself at the age of 
seven, and, of course, was acquitted. He belonged to 
the Church militant as long as he remained in France, 
a defender of the faith like his family and relatives, of 
whom four uncles preceded him into the Society. En- 
tering the Province of Lyons as a Novice in 1849, and 
completing his term of probation and classical training 
and a period of teaching of five years, he came to the 
United States in 1856. For many years he was em- 



MOSAICS 177 

ployed in teaching and private study in Spring Hill 
College, Alabama! Here he spent the stirring time of 
the war, during which he was ordained. He returned 
to France for two years, and came back to America 
to labor once more in Alabama and Georgia. On the 
separation of the Mission of New Orleans from Lyons 
in 1880, he asked and obtained leave to come North. 
He spent one year in Cincinnati, and, with the excep- 
tion of five years in Maryland missionary work, at St. 
Inigo's and Bohemia Manor, he passed the rest of his 
life in New York, on the Islands and at Yorkville. A 
good deal of his youthful fire had gone down before 
he came hither, but none of his French generosity and 
self-sacrifice deserted him. His kindly sympathy with 
the sick is still gratefully remembered in the parish. 
Worn out with labor, he was sent to Fordham to end 
his days. There he died in his seventy-third year, on 
January 3rd, 1903 ; and there he sleeps the sleep of the 
just with his Brethren in God's Acre. 

Contemporary with Father Desribes during the eight 
years of his stay here under Father McKinnon, and 
outlasting him for four years more, was Father Pat- 
rick F. Healy. In his prime he was one of the fore- 
most Catholic educators in America, and a striking 
figure in Washington society at a time when intellectual 
giants still survived. He was born in Macon, Ga., on 
February 27th, 1834, and after studying at Holy Cross 
College entered the Society in 1850. His brilliant 
talents marked him out for special training, and after 
a few years spent in teaching he was sent for his 
higher studies to Rome, which he subsequently ex- 
changed for Louvain on account of his health. He re- 



178 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

turned a priest in 1866, and was appointed to the chair 
of philosophy at Georgetown for two years. In 1868 
he was entrusted with the important post of Prefect of 
Studies, which he continued to hold as long as his 
health permitted. The Civil War had sadly depleted 
the ranks of the students, who had been in a great 
measure recruited from the South. Father Healy's 
sound principles of teaching, his close watchfulness 
over the progress of the scholars, his careful instruction 
of the younger teachers, his illustrations, his criti- 
cisms, his conversation (an education in itself) made 
up in a measure in the matter of quality for diminished 
quantity. He was a firm believer in the gospel of 
hard work, and had his belief translated into action by 
those under his charge. Those who had to carry it out 
were, without doubt, inclined to rebel at the necessity 
of accuracy and thoroughness ; but in after life, George- 
town students, while attributing their success to Father 
Healy's training, were proud to hail him as the second 
founder of Georgetown. 

He was raised to the post of rectorship in 1873, and 
continued to fill the office of Prefect of Studies too. 
When, in 1877, he began the construction of the new 
building, perhaps the handsomest specimen of archi- 
tecture in the District of Columbia, he strove to super- 
vise that also in all its details. The strain was too much 
for even Father Healy. 

He suffered from an aggravated form of nervous 
prostration, and to recuperate he was sent to California 
by sea over the Panama route. Being restored some- 
what, he returned, resumed his duties once more, but 
with sadly diminished vitality. In 1882 he was re- 



MOSAICS 179 

lieved of all responsibility and was allowed to spend 
his enforced idleness in the company of his brother, 
the Bishop of Portland, Me. After eight years he 
was assigned to the residence in Providence, where he 
acted as librarian, and did whatever church work his 
head could stand. He came to us in 1894, and made 
himself useful in the confessional and pulpit, continu- 
ing to improve for seven or eight years. In the com- 
munity his experience and his sound judgment were 
valuable aids to Father McKinnon, and were duly ap- 
preciated. When his memory began to fail, he was 
sent to Georgetown as more likely to please him and 
revive his failing powers. Loss of memory culminat- 
ing in softening of the brain left him but the wreck 
of his former great self. He died on January 10th, 
1910. 

For two years, from 1895 to 1897, Father Thomas 
McCloskey, later Rector of St. Francis Xavier's and 
of Fordham, worked in the parish with charge in par- 
ticular of the Parochial School and the Sunday School. 
He is with us yet, strong, vigorous, a perfect picture 
of health and not likely to need a biographer for many 
years to come. Hence a mere mention here must suf- 
fice. The same applies to Father Edward X. Fink, 
who returned for a year to take charge of the School. 
His second stay was short like the first. He was pro- 
moted to the post of Rector of Gonzaga College, which 
he filled for the long space of nine years. He left 
a handsome school for boys as a monument of his ad- 
ministration. Impaired hearing has forced him, while 
still active in body and mind, to lead a retired life in 
the College of St. Francis Xavier. 



180 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVFLLE 

Next in order of arrival during the term of Father 
McKinnon, is Father James Conway, whose term of 
five years left its impress on the congregation. He 
was born in Tyrone, Ireland, on March 15th, 1849. 
He entered the Society of Jesus at Gorheim in 1869, 
studied philosophy at Maria Laach, and on the expul- 
sion of the Jesuits from Germany in 1872, he was sent 
to Monaco, where he was tutor to the young prince, 
and finished his philosophy, picking up a knowledge 
of Italian in the meantime. He was given a two years' 
course of German literature and rhetoric from 1874 to 
1876. After a year's teaching in Feldkirch, in Austria. 
he began his theology in the German Scholasticate in 
Ditton Hall, England, was ordained in 1880 and com- 
pleted his training in the Tertianship, Prescott, Eng- 
land. Like Ulysses, he saw many men and many cities 
and picked up many languages which he turned to good 
account. His knowledge of English, French, German 
and Italian gave him access to the best thought of 
modern Europe and power to refute the prevailing 
theories constituting the worst philosophical and edu- 
cational thought. Naturally of a serious cast of mind, 
of sound judgment, a close student, he assimilated the 
best to be found in Germany. Thus equipped he came 
to the United States in 1882, taught at Prairie du 
Chien, and Buffalo for ten years. He was professor 
of theology in Woodstock for one year, and associate 
editor of the Messenger of the Sacred Heart before 
coming to St. Ignatius. Besides his parochial labors 
he was Moderator of the Conferences and Examiner 
of the young clergy of the Archdiocese. He was in 
charge of the League during his stay, and of the 



MOSAICS 181 

parochial school for two years. The last two years of 
his life he spent at Fordham, teaching philosophy. 
His clear mind and willingness to help others were 
very much appreciated by the Seniors, especially when 
the time for final examination was approaching. He 
was always ready to accommodate others and was, in 
consequence, often called upon to assist in emergencies. 
His writings show him to be a master in the theory 
and practice of teaching. A sudden and violent attack 
of nephritis carried him off in Saint Francis Hospital, 
August 12th, 1905. He was laid to rest at Fordham 
among his brothers in religion. 

The Fordham Monthly concluded its notice of him 
as follows : — "Father Conway's work is done. He did 
it unobtrusively. Even in the heat of controversy no 
word unnecessarily harsh or bitter ever flowed from 
his pen. We feel, as we hope, that the Master has 
crowned his labors." Many here will be disposed to 
say that his work, on account of its influence over them, 
will only cease with their lives. They might say that 
it will be prolonged into eternity. Among his various 
writings a pamphlet entitled "The State Last" went 
far towards closing the Educational Controversy. 

Father William Scanlan remained with Father 
McKinnon but two short years, from 1899 to 1901. 
during the first of which he was Minister of the house. 
He was born in Ireland, on February 15th, 1840, and 
came to this country as a child. His first educational 
steps were taken in the Public Schools of Boston and 
in St. Mary's parochial school in the North End, where 
his father and large family settled down. When pre- 
pared for the course, he was sent to Holy Cross Col- 



182 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

lege, Worcester, Mass., and was admitted to the So- 
ciety in 1859. The end of his novitiate saw lively 
times in the Frederick valley when soldiers marched 
through and around it to Antietam and Gettysburg. 
In common with most of the community, he added his 
little mite to the comfort and religious instruction of 
the stricken soldiers. Wounds were a blessing to many 
in those days. Of all those who died in the Scholas- 
tics' quarters, surrendered for hospital purposes, there 
was but one man, Catholic or Protestant, who was not 
reconciled with God. That unfortunate man had lost 
all belief in Christianity and would receive spiritual 
ministration from no one. For the six years following 
Gettysburg, Mr. Scanlan taught at Holy Cross, and 
when Woodstock College was opened in 1869 he was 
one of the pioneers. Here he remained for seven 
years and here he was ordained in 1875. During his 
theology the class was joined by Mr. McKinnon. 
Much had been heard of the imposing stature of the 
new student from Prince Edward Island. Scarcely 
had he reached the house before he had to compare 
height with Mr. Scanlan, who up to that time had held 
the record for altitude, and whose red pinnacle had 
been conspicuous in house and grounds. The measure- 
ment resulted in victory for Mr. McKinnon with about 
two inches to spare. Despite his defeat, he became a 
loyal supporter to Father McKinnon a quarter of a 
century later for a period of two years. Father Scan- 
lan spent much of his life in Boston, now at St. Mary's, 
the church of his childhood, now at the Immaculate 
Conception, but with most of his energy in both places 
concentrated on young men with whom he was a sue- 




Blessed Virgin's Altar 



MOSAICS 183 

cessful laborer. He instituted the Young Men's Cath- 
olic Association at the very outset of his priestly career 
in Boston, and thereby gave Catholics a standing there 
which they had not had before. Father Fulton edu- 
cated them. Father Scanlan bound them together and 
showed them their strength. The last years of his life 
were devoted to the unfortunates of Deer Island in the 
harbor of Boston, a miniature Blackwell's Island in 
the East. He died at St. Mary's, Boston, March 24th, 
1914. 

Another coadjutor to Father McKinnon in the up- 
building of the parish, and an assistant to all Father 
McKinnon's successors up to the present, is Father 
George Quin. He had been here as an organizer of 
the boys' and the young men's Sodalities in the last 
months of Father O'Connor and the early days of 
Father McCarthy. Transferred to Troy in March, 
1891, he pursued the same course, and remained there 
until that residence was surrendered to the Bishop. 
Then he returned to Yorkville, June, 1900, and has 
remained here from that to the present time. He fears 
very much to have his name found in these annals, not, 
it is to be hoped, through any dread of the police or 
civic authorities, though he has been prowling in more 
dark hallways and has climbed more stairways than 
any man in the history of Yorkville, but because, like 
all tall men, he needs to put on no airs, and like all 
big men he is indifferent to the bubble, fame. On his 
return he set himself to cultivate that element in the 
parish which has ceased to be small boy, and has 
passed the monkey stage without yet reaching the 
era of the razor. The task was a puzzling and a diffi- 



184 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

cult one, one demanding tact, good nature, prudence 
and sympathy, one that called for a nice discrimination 
between the essentials of Qiristian virtue on the one 
hand and the dictates of polite society on the other. 
The distinction was drawn with precision and acted 
upon, and the guiding principles embodied in a book, 
"The Boy-Saver's Guide," a book that deserves a wide 
circulation in order to solve one of our pressing prob- 
lems. 

Through lack of a proper place for games and recre- 
ation, the work cannot be carried on with all the suc- 
cess that is desirable. But as the boy problem is in the 
air, is being seriously discussed by serious and zealous 
men, as well among the clergy as among the laity, it 
is to be hoped that some means may be found either 
by co-operation, or some munificent foundation, to 
prosecute the work on a grander scale than has been 
hitherto attempted. The boy between the knicker- 
bocker and the razor stages will not choose the street 
corner for recreation if he can find a more congenial 
outlet for his surplus vitality. He must be by him- 
self, he must not have too much supervision, he must 
be given as much self-government as possible. He 
may receive suggestions which he will gladly adopt 
if they fit, but he must not be taught how to play. 
He knows that already and will see to it that fair 
play is practised. A man of fifty has forgotten how 
a boy of fifteen likes to amuse himself, though he may 
suggest that certain forms of play trench on the rights 
of others. The suggestion will find a ready acceptance 
from the majority and certainly it will be enforced by 
the leaders. 



CHAPTER XV 
Loyola School 

With the dedication of the new Church and its 
permanent use for divine worship, though it yet lacked 
many contemplated additions and many of the em- 
bellishments later supplied, the second of Father Trean- 
or's ambitious schemes was realized, and on a scale 
grander than his plans called for. It now remained to 
realize the third, the erection of a College for the 
higher education of Yorkville. It was clear that no 
one parish could fill the classes of a college, nor even 
of a High School: it was clear also that not even one 
district, such as Yorkville then was, could do so, yet 
the need of higher education was felt, and in some 
place more accessible than Fifteenth Street. The call 
to supply that was recognized by every Jesuit superior, 
as soon as circumstances would permit. His occupancy 
of a parish had that ultimate object always in view. 
To make a beginning, to break the ground, as it were, 
Father Moylan, the first independent superior of the 
parish, opened a Latin School in connection with the 
parochial school, hoping that it would grow with the 
growth of the parish, gaining recruits from the gram- 
mar classes, and possibly also from the new district 
fast growing up around St. Vincent Ferrer's, and even 
from distant Harlem, which was in a worse case than 
Yorkville. 

The school opened with twenty students in Septem- 



186 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

ber, had a languishing existence of ten months, and 
died a natural death in June when the number was re- 
duced to eight boys. It could make no headway against 
poverty, sparse population, lack of ambition, and an- 
tipathy to hard work on the part of the boys. What 
Father Moylan could not effect, Father Treanor hoped 
to achieve. In ten years the neighborhood had at- 
tracted a considerable number of residents, though the 
village conditions persevered. Financially men were 
better off under the recovery that slowly succeeded the 
hard times of 1873 with its disastrous Black Friday. 
Father Treanor was popular and could mould the 
residents almost at will. Yet even he was not able to 
succeed. He planned a college building, of which the 
present residence was to form a part, and his suc- 
cessor, as far as time would allow, commenced to 
execute the plan. He inaugurated Latin teaching after 
school hours for any of the boys who had ambition, and 
were willing to sacrifice their play time in the after- 
noon. Four o'clock class in a hard subject for one 
hour that was subtracted from ordinary play time, was 
too large a pill for the average boy to swallow even 
though prescribed by such a doctor as Father Treanor. 
The sacrifice of play time, when play was deemed 
necessary after five hours of class, the newness of the 
matter, its meaningless declensions of nouns and con- 
jugations of verbs, the fancied uselessness of the study 
for those who felt no call to the priesthood, combined 
to give the death-blow to the Latin school, the germ 
of a High School, and of a far distant College. It was 
the first and only failure in the all-too-brief administra- 
tion of Father Treanor. 



LOYOLA SCHOOL 187 

Twenty years passed, yet not for once was the hope 
of one day seeing a High School attached to the church 
lost sight of. Allusions to the matter are continually 
cropping up in letters to the Generals, and private dis- 
cussions on prospects of success keep the matter in 
view. While increased facilities of travel made the 
necessity of a High School less urgent and the growth 
of the parish made a new Church more urgent, the 
efforts of the Fathers were concentrated on the latter 
need, and the completed new Church was the result. 
With the church finished for all practical purposes, 
Father McKinnon turned his attention at once to the 
School. 

Few men knew Catholic New York better than 
Father McKinnon. He was familiar with the rich 
and the poor, and both classes looked up to him, to his 
tall, manly, benevolent and sympathetic figure, and to 
his broad mind and Catholic outlook. His charge was 
a local one, but his interests were general. The estab- 
lishment of a School requires a survey of general 
rather than of local interests, and Father McKinnon, 
disregarding his natural sympathy with the poor, de- 
termined to supply a crying need among the rich. As 
a rule they had ambition to send their sons to colleges 
or universities to finish their education, and conse- 
quently preparation must be made either by private 
tutors or in High Schools to fit the boys to pass the 
entrance examination. Ordinarily the wealthy classes 
will not, at least in this latitude, be willing to send their 
sons to the public schools, and therefore select or High 
Grade Schools have been opened for their accommo- 
dation. In these the classes are smaller, and as more 



188 FIFTY YEARS [N VORKVILLE 

attention is given to each individual student, so a higher 
tuition fee is exacted. The high fee will exclude the 
multitude and secure better manners, if not better 
morals. There may be a loss in democratic instincts 
in such a selection, but there is sure to be a gain in 
culture, or at least in conventional propriety. These 
High Grade Schools are patronized extensively by the 
rich, and to draw to them the youth of all denomina- 
tions, they are advertised as undenominational, that is 
to say, all religion is excluded from the class rooms. 
If parents supply the element lacking, well and good; 
if not the boys will grow up cultured pagans, or with 
only so much Christianity as filters through the ever 
thinning layers of tradition. 

Strange as it may appear to the thoughtful Chris- 
tian, Catholic parents were willing to subject their sons 
to the risk of breathing such an atmosphere as neces- 
sarily existed in schools where no religion was taught, 
where no morality based on religion could be taught, 
where social position was the great ambition, where ex- 
travagance in expenditure became a boast and rivalry, 
where the sayings and doings of society, often unsav- 
ory, could be discussed, where self abnegation was a 
heresy of the Middle Ages, where having a good time 
was the supreme good. As a salve to their conscience 
they might point to some graduate of a Catholic Col- 
lege who had gone astray, as if Judas Iscariot had not 
belonged to the most august and sacred college ever 
established on earth and under the Supreme Master 
Himself. 

If parents persist in sending their sons to secular 
colleges and universities, and run the risks of agnostic 



LOYOLA SCHOOL 189 

or anti-Catholic teaching, Father McKinnon thought 
it would be a work of zeal, one that would win the 
approval of St. Ignatius himself, to establish a select 
school where during the High School course, and even 
during the later Grammar School classes, if such were 
found necessary, the boys would receive religious in- 
struction along with secular learning, where they would 
learn and practise prayer for a few minutes a day, 
where they would prepare for. and frequently receive, 
the Sacraments and be fitted to meet the dangers into 
which they might be subsequently thrown, if they were 
not converted to the advantages of a purely Catholic 
education. Thoroughly discussed at home, the plan 
was sanctioned by the General, and met with the ap- 
probation of His Grace, the Archbishop, and the hearty 
commendation of Father Purbrick, the Provincial, who 
had himself conducted such a school for many years 
in England, and attracted to it many boys from the 
United States, the various Republics of South America 
and from European countries. Jesuits of the Austrian 
Empire had at least two such schools, and others of a 
like nature had been established elsewhere in the history 
of the Society. 

With the fullest approbation of Superiors, there- 
fore, Father McKinnon looked around for ways and 
means to carry out his idea. Clearly he could not ask 
the parish to contribute for such an enterprise, as it 
was not a parochial affair. It would be an anomaly to 
ask the poor to educate the sons of the rich. If the 
rich were to be the beneficiaries they must bear the 
expense. Sufficient money was borrowed to erect the 
building. The pension would be enough to pay the 



190 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

interest, current expenses and lay aside a sum to cancel 
the debt eventually. Work on the foundation was be- 
gun in February, 1899, and the corner stone was 
blessed and laid within the same month. A vexatious 
series of delays prevented the completion until the 
close of the following year. It was only a week before 
the Christmas season that the class rooms were ready 
for occupancy. On Monday, February 11th, just two 
years after the breaking of ground, the Archbishop 
came to bless the new school. Though the class rooms 
were not ready for the beginning of the term in Octo- 
ber, yet the pupils found a temporary accommodation 
in the parlors of the residence of the Fathers. 

The material of the building is Indiana limestone, 
like that of the church, and serves to lighten the sombre 
hue of the residence. The whole front, church, resi- 
dence and school, is imposing and dignified, and en- 
hanced by the magnificent avenue with its grass, 
flowers and shrubbery. With its basement on the 
street level, it contains six stories, one more than the 
residence, and to a certain extent it balances the superi- 
or height of the church. The situation on the north- 
western corner of Eighty-Third Street insures an 
abundance of light for the class rooms. The entrance 
is on Eighty-Third Street and leads by broad steps to 
the first floor. A lesser door on the right gives the 
students admission to the basement, where they may 
exercise in a gymnasium or indulge in play in a large, 
tiled play room, unless they should prefer the more 
spacious quadrangle, as they almost always do in fine 
weather. On the first floor, beginning on the east side 
or front, there is a chapel for the boys and community, 



LOYOLA SCHOOL 191 

an office for the Vice-Principal and an Assembly Hall 
for the students. A broad and well-lighted stairway 
with marble steps and iron balustrade leads to the top 
of the building. On each of the second, third and 
fourth floors there are three large class rooms. The 
space on the Avenue front and the entire sixth floor 
is given up to recreation and living rooms. The class 
rooms on all floors are separated from the community 
portion by glass doors. An annex building on the 
west contains a library and reading room with class 
rooms and chemical laboratory on the upper floors. On 
a level with the yard and communicating with it, a 
lunch room is fitted up in the basement. 

Though the building was incomplete until near mid- 
term, a larger number of boys than any one expected 
came to the temporary classes, and these applicants, 
all but three, had been enrolled in non-Catholic schools. 
This was a proof that the school was a necessity, a 
want felt by Catholic parents. Many subject to the 
spell exercised by the political or religious domination 
of Protestants, who take it as a matter of course that 
any thing purely Catholic must necessarily be of in- 
ferior character and merit, found an institution as 
well equipped and as well located as any of its kind 
in the city, and superior to most, whilst the teaching 
was just as good, if not better. Opportunities for 
play and recreation were unsurpassed, and a great at- 
traction; while faith, the first and fundamental gift in 
the supernatural order, was safeguarded, and piety and 
prayer and the exercise of faith were taken for granted. 
and practised in the most natural fashion, as became 
boys nurtured in a Catholic home. 



192 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

The Principal, Father McKinnon was, perhaps, the 
most widely-known Priest in the Archdiocese, and 
among the most esteemed friends of rich and poor, 
clergy and laity, men and women. His post was a 
guarantee that the education of boys would receive 
the most attentive supervision, and that close personal 
contact of pupil and teacher which is the peculiar 
characteristic of the High Grade School, and the aim 
of the Jesuit system. Father Ennis, on whom the 
practical running of the school devolved, by his bright, 
cheery, sympathetic nature attracted the students at 
first sight, made them perfectly at home, and reconciled 
them to the hateful necessity of hard work, and the 
equally hateful need of silence, order and self-restraint. 

Good work has been accomplished and continues to 
be accomplished, and the hopes secretly cherished that 
most of those who entered the Loyola School would 
eventually choose to finish their course in a Catholic 
College have been fulfilled. It is needless to say that 
all have been thoroughly grounded in the principles 
of our faith, and have been taught in season and out 
of season to put these principles into practice. They 
have thus laid the foundation for a Christian life fruit- 
ful in virtue and active cooperation in the external 
manifestation of supernatural existence. Whilst it 
would be too much to expect that all would at all times 
be above reproach, much as that is to be desired, it is 
gratifying to state that Loyola's graduates have shown 
a record second to no other school. 

For a term of three years Father Ennis gave loyal 
support in carrying out the ideas of Father McKinnon, 
the Principal of Loyola School, and raised the enter- 



LOYOLA SCHOOL 193 

prise above the experimental stage. He was then pro- 
moted to higher and wider fields of activity, to teach- 
ing philosophy, to preaching missions throughout the 
country and to the responsible post of Rector of Loyola 
College, Baltimore, which he has filled for over six 
years. It is to be hoped that he may be able to carry 
to a successful conclusion the ambitious project of 
building a new college and a new church of St. Igna- 
tius, in a locality better suited for academic purposes 
than the present site on a business thoroughfare. It 
would be a worthy crown to his many years of efficient 
labor. 

Father James P. Fagan came in 1903 to take up 
the task of directing actively the destinies of Loyola 
School. Whereas Father Ennis had but two priests 
of the Society to aid him, and those only in his third 
year, Father Fagan was fortunate in directing four 
able scholastics. He knew their training and could 
count on the most hearty cooperation. He himself 
was a master in the theory of education, and was looked 
upon as an authority in the matter by the Committee 
of Studies of the Association of Catholic Colleges to 
which he belonged. Even after Father Fagan had 
resigned his post on the Committee, the Chairman 
would consult him on matters of higher moment. His 
keen sense of justice, his sympathy with the young, 
his love of knowledge and his high ideals not only in 
the moral, but also in the intellectual life, won him 
the deep respect of those who came in contact with 
him. To the few who were intimate with him he 
was an object of veneration. He was born in New 
York, February 20th, 1856, and was educated in the 



194 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Public Schools until the age of thirteen and a half. 
For his academic course he was sent to Fordham and 
continued there until the completion of Freshman year. 
Feeling called to the clerical state, he resolved to enter 
the Society of Jesus and made his novitiate at Sault- 
au-Recollet, near Montreal. For his higher classical 
studies he went to Roehampton, England, and for his 
philosophy, Louvain, Belgium, was chosen. He made 
his theological studies at Woodstock, Maryland, and 
was ordained there in August, 1887. Before coming 
to Loyola School he had' several years' experience in 
teaching, both as Scholastic and after his ordination, 
and had been Prefect of Studies in Fordham, George- 
town and St. Francis Xavier's. 

His end was sudden, but not unprovided. He was 
always frail and probably anticipated an early and un- 
heralded call from life. He lived a life of prayer and 
union with God, his favorite devotion being to our 
Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Every night, before 
going to sleep he made every arrangement for death 
that could be made, short of receiving the last Sacra- 
ment, so as to be ready for the summons of the Bride- 
groom. "He was found dead in his room on the morn- 
ing of April 28th, 1906. He had risen from his bed 
and dressed himself, and it would seem had knelt at 
his desk with his hands clasped in prayer, probably in 
preparation for Holy Mass. Suddenly the blood 
flooded his brain and paralysis, especially of the right 
side, followed. When he was called for Mass he was 
found prostrate on the floor, face downward. Those 
who first reached him asserted that the pulse showed 
some slight indication of life, so while Extreme Unc- 



LOYOLA SCHOOL 195 

tion was being administered, the prayers for the dy- 
ing were said." 1 The crowded sanctuary and the well 
filled church on the morning of the funeral testified 
to the esteem in which Father Fagan was held by 
priests and people, and helped to relieve Father McKin- 
non, who in the death of his Vice-Principal had suf- 
fered a bewildering blow. 

In September, 1906, the practical administration of 
Loyola School was entrusted to Father O' Gorman, 
who had the privilege of giving the last touches to 
the developing character of the School. For schools, 
like individuals, have their character, which, like that 
of the individual, is of gradual growth, and may be 
good or bad according to circumstances. It is the 
product of many conspiring and cooperating forces, 
arising from management, teaching, principles and as- 
sociations. It is possible to have a perfectly pagan 
school conducted by Christians, if they are not at pains 
to emphasize their Christianity ; just as a body of saint- 
ly men might be placed in charge of a school, which 
contained a large percentage of reprobates, until they 
were able to weed out the reprobates, and impress the 
neutrals by their sanctity. The boy gives the atmo- 
sphere to the school, as well as the teacher, and he 
must have moral principles founded on religion, a 
religion that is practical, not theoretic, one that enters 
into one's every-day life and is not reserved for Sun- 
day. It must be fostered by prayer, by Sacraments, 
by self-denial, self-control and unselfishness, and a 
fundamental respect for the rights and dignity of 
others. 

1 Woodstock Letters, Oct, 1906. 



196 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

A splendid opportunity for exercise is afforded to 
the boys by the spacious playground, enlarged four- 
fold beyond its original dimensions, for games of 
handball, football, basketball, tennis, hockey and 
restricted baseball for the Juniors. Here while exer- 
cising lungs and muscles, they learn the more im- 
portant lessons of self-control, forbearance and dem- 
ocracy, always under the watchful eye of a superin- 
tendent, who is more a partner in the games than a 
curb on youthful vitality, as long as it does not pass 
the bounds of propriety. 

The nearby chapel, inviting and receiving frequent 
visitors, the weekly Mass and weekly Communions, the 
regular daily lesson in Catechism, the weekly explana- 
tion of Catholic doctrines and practices, the annual 
retreat, First Friday and May devotions, insure a 
thorough intellectual and practical grasp of Catholic 
life. The Holy Childhood and Christmas collection 
for the poor, through the St. Vincent de Paul Society, 
give an opportunity for the exercise of charity to the 
neighbor and for self-denial. All this promotes an 
atmosphere that is healthy, moral and stimulating. Re- 
ligion is taken for granted and leavens the whole day 
of play and study and social intercourse. 

To insure better application to study than can be 
secured at their homes, where countless interruptions 
are liable to occur, the pupils of Loyola School are 
required to master their more important tasks before 
leaving in the evening. Nor are they in the least over- 
taxed, since recess and play alternate with class and 
study. The yard is a constant attraction not only on 
school days, but also on holidays. Play and refined 



LOYOLA SCHOOL 197 

companionship are always possible and are eagerly 
sought. Besides the ordinary studies of the high 
school course pursued in like academies, incentives to 
practical work are offered in the fortnightly debates, 
in the annual play, in the "Loyola,'' a school publica- 
tion. The definite end of carrying one's point con- 
duces to research and accuracy of thought and clear- 
ness of expression. Acting one play of Shakespeare 
will give one a better insight into a masterpiece than 
many perusals or study under a teacher. The incen- 
tive of seeing one's name in print at the end of a com- 
position will do more to promote accurate writing than 
any other means hitherto discovered. 

These combinations of methods, training and exer- 
cises have won for Loyola School a good name in Al- 
bany as well as an enviable place in New York City. 
Credit for the conception is due to Father McKinnon 
and for its execution to Fathers Ennis, Fagan and 
O'Gorman and their able staffs of Catholic and schol- 
arly gentlemen and religious. The watchful interest 
of Father Hearn during his term of six years has been 
productive of gratifying results. 



CHAPTER XVI 
The New Parochial School 

When Father Loyzance, Rector of St. Francis Xa- 
vier's and ecclesiastical Superior of St. Lawrence, un- 
dertook in 1868 the erection of a parish school, there 
were many vacant blocks, many vegetable gardens, 
some farms, and a patch of "forest primeval" within 
our parochial limits. There was no Church but ours, 
and no Catholic School between Fiftieth Street and 
One Hundred and Seventeenth Street. The territory 
was extensive, but the population was small. The 
school was large and, for the time, imposing, and was 
calculated to suffice indefinitely. But few men, even 
with the phenomenal growth of lower New York 
present to their eyes, could forecast the rapid march 
of population and make due provision for it ten years 
in advance. The schools constructed to the south and 
east and northeast of us, diminished the pressure of 
Catholic pupils, but only for a time. We could not 
possibly house all who ought to be with us, much less 
all who were liable to apply as years went on. The 
School was sufficient to accommodate all comers in 
1868 and afterwards, as portion after portion of our 
territory was given over to zealous pastors. However, 
when further dissection seemed no longer probable and 
numbers still increased, it became evident that larger 
quarters must be provided for our children. 

For some years the subject of elementary education 



THE NEW PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 199 

attracted a considerable amount of attention, and pro- 
voked much discussion of ways and means, curriculum 
and results. The State naturally desired to control all 
education, and was willing to pay a handsome amount 
for the support and supervision of the work. The 
temptation to be relieved from the burden of contribut- 
ing to the maintenance of Catholic Schools whilst being 
taxed for the public schools, too, was a strong one, 
especially to those who were short on worldly goods. 
The matter was thoroughly threshed out in papers, 
magazines, reviews and pamphlets, and by none more 
ably than by Father James Conway of St. Ignatius. 
Discussion as is usual led to confusion of ideas in the 
multitude at first: but as time went on and essentials 
were insisted upon, and side issues eliminated, the con- 
clusion became clear that the Church, to forward her 
divine mission for the salvation of souls, must guard 
her schools, and retain for herself the important task 
of educating the young in sacred and secular branches 
of instruction. First impressions are most lasting, and 
consequently it is all important that from the earliest 
years the lessons of faith and Christian morality should 
be, not merely learned, but, as it were, imbibed with 
every breath. The sacrifice in money is no small one, 
yet every practical Catholic will admit that it is in- 
significant, when one weighs the gain in the light of 
resulting faith and religious practice, piety and devo- 
tion. 

Our School was too small for our possible pupils, 
and those in particular were absent who needed our 
teaching most, the children of the lukewarm, the chil- 
dren of those who patronized the public schools because 



200 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

of their more showy architecture or for surer political 
preferment, or because of the supposed superior stan- 
dard, or because one parent was a Protestant, or be- 
cause parents wished their children "to learn something 
more than their prayers," and become practical mem- 
bers of society. Children whose parents were thus 
minded were just the ones who needed the most care, 
whom it was most desirable to house, and educate in 
the faith, and in the rudiments of secular knowledge 
more thoroughly than even in the public schools. 
Hence, as soon as Father McKjnnon felt the need of 
a larger building and could count on means to con- 
struct one, he took immediate steps to carry out his 
design. In the month of May, 1903, the first appeal 
is made to the congregation through the pages of the 
Church Bulletin. We read : 

"The New Parochial School House." 

"The first meeting of the association for this building 
fund was held in the parish hall, Sunday, April 26th, 
L903, at 4 P. M., and meetings will be held regularly 
every second and fourth Sunday of the month here- 
after." The activities of well-wishers to the cause of 
education were utilized in collecting from the willing 
such donation as could be made. Constant reference 
to educational matters crops up in the Bulletin, tributes 
to our successful work, comparison between competi- 
tors from public and parochial scholars, our relative 
superiority in examinations, were set before the minds 
of parents and others interested, in order to excite 
enthusiasm and foster generous giving. 



THE NEW PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 201 

If reliance had to be placed on the monthly con- 
tributions alone for the construction of the school, 
it would take an indefinite time before work could be- 
gin, and it was all important that building should begin 
and be brought to a conclusion as soon as possible. 
Some of the classes were doubled in one room owing 
to lack of space for separate class rooms for separate 
grades. A building once intended to house 600 chil- 
dren now held over 900. Despite this serious draw- 
back, somehow the pupils were able to hold their own 
in competitive examinations, and the Church Bulletin 
is able to announce 100% success in the graduating 
classes year after year. To push the enterprise to a 
speedy conclusion and find a remedy for the over- 
crowding and doubling of grades in one class room, 
a meeting of the corporation was held, January 28th, 
1907, and Father McKinnon was authorized to take 
the necessary steps for the erection of a school build- 
ing. Plans were drawn up by Schickel and Ditmars, 
the architects of the Church, and according to their 
estimate the building ought to be erected for two hun- 
dred thousand dollars. The sum was a large one, yet 
reasonable for our school, if it could be constructed at 
that price. When, however, the bids were opened, the 
successful firm, M. Reid and Co., required one hundred 
and seventy-two thousand dollars for construction 
alone. Plumbing, heating, lighting and furniture were 
yet to be heard from. The contract for construction 
was signed on April 26th, 1907, and work began with- 
out delay. But demolition must precede construction, 
and demolition caused many a pang in Yorkville. More 
than a generation of our people had been instructed in 



202 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

the old class rooms. The hall had witnessed many 
sacred and social assemblies, the memory of which was 
deeply impressed on the minds of parishioners. The 
Sodalists had a more beautiful and sacred place of 
assembly; but it is safe to say that not even the gor- 
geous church would ever renew the sentiments of piety 
and family feeling stirred up in youthful breasts on the 
first reception into the Sodality, or on the regular re- 
curring celebrations and solemn processions in the 
hall and from the hall to the Church. The veils to 
which the elder sodalists so fondly clung, veils once 
worn in mournful procession from the old church to 
the Grand Central Depot, must be laid aside forever. 
It was like the parting of the young novice with her 
long tresses on assuming the religious habit. 

But what about the classes while the old school 
was coming down and the new one going up? After 
the 8.30 Mass in the Lower Church, which the school 
children were accustomed then to attend daily, the body 
of the church was divided by portable screens into 
spaces sufficiently large for the various classes, leaving 
an interval of two pews between class and class. By 
utilizing every vacant spot, the upper and lower sac- 
risties, even the vestibule of the Upper Church, it was 
found possible to accommodate all the classes. It 
speaks well for both teachers and children that they 
bore uncomplainingly all the inconveniences of this ar- 
rangement, and it is a striking proof of the good dis- 
cipline in the school that recitations could be conducted 
in all the classes without interference one with another. 

All who were in attendance in the beginning of the 
year continued under these novel circumstances, and 




i.l 8 1 £ 



Old Parochial School 



THE NEW PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 203 

very few failed to return at the opening of the new 
session. The commencement exercises took place in 
the parish hall behind the sacristy of the Lower Church, 
and were graced by an operetta, "The Land of the 
Sunrise Sea," composed by Father O'Conor, and ren- 
dered by the girls of the upper classes. During the 
interval of construction a makeshift office for the school 
was established in the old organ-loft, on the epistle 
side of the sanctuary, which was cleared up after school 
hours to serve its original purpose at the evening de- 
votions. The expedient may seem a novel one to us 
now, but sixty years ago the basements of churches 
were used even for public schools in the lower districts 
of the city. A study of Valentine's Manual at that time 
states the fact, and makes interesting reading now, not 
only as regards schools, but concerning every point of 
municipal activities. 

Work was proceeding rapidly and satisfactorily on 
the new school during the summer and early fall, and 
its magnificent proportions and distinguished appear- 
ance convinced all that it would be a fitting crown 
to Father McKinnon's labors for the parish. But un- 
fortunately Father McKinnon was not destined to see 
that crown on earth, though doubtless it added to his 
joy in heaven that he had planned such a school, and 
in part put it on its way of usefulness for coming 
generations. "For two years, because of failing health, 
he withdrew somewhat from parochial ministrations, 
but his kindness of heart and gentleness of manner to 
all who sought his help remained unimpaired to the end. 
In winter he suffered a severe attack of heart trouble, 
which confined him to his room for months and almost 



204 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

proved his undoing. He never spoke of himself or his 
ailments, but it was apparent to all that his late illness 
had left his health seriously shattered. On the first 
of October he was taken ill again, this time with an 
attack of acute uremia, which, joined to the poor con- 
dition of his heart, brought on the end." The last 
notice for the announcement book on September 29th, 
written in his hand, is as follows: — "The October 
devotions consisting of a short sermon, the Rosary and 
Benediction will begin on Tuesday evening." He had 
advertised himself as the preacher on the following 
Sunday, three days before he died. Another had to 
take his place as he was too ill, and was actually pre- 
paring immediately for death. 

"He was ready to go. His life had been super- 
natural — a life of literal self-obliteration, and, there- 
fore, a very good preparation for death. Besides, a 
few days before he was taken with his last illness, he 
made a general confession of his whole life, and at 
his deathbed the Provincial and all the Fathers of St. 
Ignatius' were present to join in the prayers for the 
dying. His funeral was a magnificent tribute of affec- 
tion and respect from his numerous friends. His 
Grace, Archbishop Farley, said the Low Mass and gave 
the last absolution. Priests from many parishes 
crowded the sanctuary to its utmost, while the church 
was filled to overflowing long before the Mass of Re- 
quiem began. The remains were taken to Fordham 
Cemetery, whither many sorrowing friends followed 
to witness the last rites over the grave." 

"For fourteen years he was Pastor of St. Ignatius 
Church, and it is no exaggeration to say that for pa- 



- ' • '■ 

WW ^ 



1 



Father McKinnon 



THE NEW PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 205 

tience and gentleness and kindness of heart to all with 
whom he had to do, Father McKinnon realized to a 
striking degree, in his life and ministry, the ideal of 
a true pastor left us by the great Shepherd of Souls — 
Christ Himself.'" 1 , 

Just as in stature he overtopped everybody about 
him, so in disposition he seemed above the littleness 
of human nature, pride, jealousy, anger, envy, ambi- 
tion. His faith was too strong, and his union with 
God too close, to permit him ever to worry. His 
placid countenance ever reflected the serenity of his 
soul. His own perpetual calm made him all the more 
sympathetic for those who lack this inestimable gift. 
He was not a man of many words, especially about 
himself; but he was a perfect listener, and a sympa- 
thetic one in every trouble, whether one were rich or 
poor, young or old, black or white, ignorant or learned. 
He probably knew more secrets than any man in New 
York, and said less about what he knew than any one 
in New York. His ears were ever open to those in 
trouble, and his lips were closed after the interview. 
Those who knew him well were convinced that he 
could never be replaced; just as those who knew his 
successor, and were indebted to him, judged the world 
a blank after the successor's removal by the unpitying 
hand of death. Both parties are right as far as they 
themselves are concerned, though the world jogs along 
in its insensible course. 

On October 25th, Father Pardow came from Phil- 
adelphia, where he had been stationed for a few 
months, to take the place left vacant by Father McKin- 

Church Bulletin, Nov.. 1907. 



206 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

non. He was no stranger in the parish; for, besides 
residing here as Socius to the Provincial while the 
new college of St. Francis Xavier was in progress of 
construction, and preaching and lecturing here occa- 
sionally, he had belonged to the regular staff of 
workers in the church from 1901 to 1903. His ser- 
mons, by preference of a controversial type, had made 
him known to a very wide circle, and his retreats, of 
which he gave a large number, won him many warm 
friends. To the many, to whom a priest is just a priest, 
one to give absolution in case of need, to give Holy 
Communion in turn, and to say Mass at the appointed 
hour, any one could succeed Father McKinnon; to 
those who were indebted to the late pastor, no one 
could ever take his place; to those who knew and ap- 
preciated Father Pardow, his appointment was a hap- 
py one. He was a preacher by predilection, and had 
carefully prepared himself for the task from his early 
years in the Society. He made the usual course of 
three years of philosophy and four years of theology, 
and when free from duties of obligation he read exten- 
sively in preparation for the pulpit, he cultivated his 
voice and enlarged his lungs enormously to make his 
voice carry the better. Though educated in France, 
and justly admiring the great French pulpit orators, 
he broke away from their sonorous periods and adopted 
preferably the short sentence of the modern school, so 
as to secure the attention of his audience and enable 
them the better to comprehend his argument. After 
long and diligent preparation for the pulpit, after 
varied experience in most of the large cities in the 
country as far as San Francisco, and while yet in the 



THE NEW PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 207 

full possession of his powers, he came to St. Ignatius 
for the chief work of his life. 

Though preaching was Father Pardow's work of 
predilection, yet as Superior he had to concern himself 
with finance too, a matter which made no appeal to 
him, worried him not a little, and was a constant dis- 
traction. The new school was going up rapidly, and 
was eating up money at an appalling rate, and, what 
was worse in his eyes, the money was borrowed. If 
he were not in charge, the money question would not 
cost him a thought ; now it cost him many, and it was 
a thorn in his side. He did not doubt the generosity 
of the congregation, and he had no reason to doubt it ; 
but New York was in a panic when he came, and the 
panic spread through the country. His accountability 
for the borrowed money was a plague to him and fol- 
lowed him to his last moments. It did not, however, 
prevent him from preaching, though it was a distrac- 
tion to his preparation. 

He ascended the pulpit whenever an opportunity 
presented itself. He took his turn, of course, at the 
late Mass and at Vespers; when he could do so with 
propriety, he took the lion's share in Novenas, and 
frequently accepted invitations from other churches for 
extraordinary occasions and functions; in a word, he 
preached whenever he could, nor was he ever common- 
place or speaking to kill time. In his early days he had 
made a careful synopsis of all his sermons, and these he 
kept in such orderly fashion that in a moment he could 
lay his hand on the very matter which he wished to use, 
and in fifteen minutes, if necessary, he was ready to 
enter the pulpit and deliver one of his characteristic 



208 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

and original sermons. Even when he borrowed 
thoughts from others, and he did borrow extensively, 
the treatment and presentation were all his own, and 
the application original and timely. Every fact, every 
sight, every paper and book, whatever he knew and 
heard, was pressed into service to make God known and 
loved, to make virtue reasonable and attractive, to 
prove error false and ridiculous. Much of what he 
preached was directed primarily or secondarily to those 
who are outside the fold ; and though he endeavored to 
make converts, his public discourses were so plain and 
uncompromising in principle and utterance that one 
would expect him to defeat his own purpose by alien- 
ating the minds of his audience. But such was not the 
case. His sincerity was so apparent, his battle against 
error was so impersonal that no right-minded person 
could look upon his words as a grievance. The large 
number of his converts and their sincere attachment to 
him in life, as well as their fidelity to his memory after 
death, are a proof of the statement. He was no less 
severe, in his retreats to Catholics, on their foibles, 
weakness, compromising spirit, while all kindness to 
the individual, especially in distress. While denounc- 
ing sin and sham, he had a warm heart for the repent- 
ant sinner and the shamed shammer. The sinner in 
abstract form was before him in the pulpit and he was 
severe; when he met the same clothed in flesh and 
blood, nerves and passions, in the confessional or else- 
where, he was all sympathy and indulgence. 

While busily engaged in preaching, lecturing, giving 
retreats, Father Pardow saw his parochial school near- 
ing completion, nor could it be completed too soon, or 



THE NEW PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 309 

soon enough, to suit his wishes. For he was anxious 
to take the children from the Lower Church and place 
them in the large and bright class-rooms of the new 
structure. He had made an appeal to the congrega- 
tion to contribute on Christmas Day, 1907, an offering 
in memory of Father McKinnon for the school. The 
appeal brought the sum of three thousand dollars and 
helped to give an impetus to completion. On April 
5th, 1908, the building was thrown open for inspection 
by the congregation after all the Masses, was blessed 
by Father Pardow at three in the afternoon, a function 
to which all were invited who could attend, as well as 
the sermon preached on that occasion by the Pastor. 
The new building, about 75 feet long by 102 feet deep, 
has five floors and a basement. It is constructed of 
brick with a limestone front corresponding to the ma- 
terial and color of the Church. The basement, with 
cement floor, serves the purpose of a playroom and 
exercise ground especially for the younger children. 
The first floor is taken up with two offices in the front 
and a parish hall with a seating capacity of about 700. 
On either side of the hall are two wide stairways lead- 
ing up to the roof. On each of the floors there are 
eight well lighted and lofty class rooms, four for boys 
and four for girls. The younger pupils are on the 
second floor, and as they increase in age and learning 
they mount higher and higher until they finish the 
Eighth Grade, on the top floor. The roof is strength- 
ened and tiled, protected by high railings to serve as 
a playground in fine weather. Besides compartments 
for coats, hats, rubbers and umbrellas attached to each 
class room but separated from it, there is a wide space 



210 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

well lighted in the centre of each floor for assembly 
and the formation of ranks. Planned to give accom- 
modation for 1,200 pupils, some of the classes are at 
the present writing already taxed to their utmost ca- 
pacity. In the near future provision must be made 
for an influx into the lower grades. The noble appear- 
ance of the building, coupled with the excellent qual- 
ity of the teaching of the Sisters of Charity and their 
aids, and the gratifying success of the pupils in the 
Regents' examinations, have drawn pupils away from 
the public schools. Two Marist Brothers have recently 
been secured to teach the two highest grades on the 
boys' side, with happy results. 

The cost of building was high, and it will take many 
years, at the present rate, to pay off the debt. Still, 
no one of those who made a tour of inspection over it 
on the day of the school's dedication would wish to 
see any of its accommodations curtailed, any of its 
features, interior or exterior cheapened; and, as they 
listened to the strong words of Father Pardow's dedi- 
cation sermon, they appreciated the sacred mission of 
the Catholic School, and went away with the convic- 
tion that, after their church, no more hallowed spot 
exists in the parish than that in which their children 
imbibe and inhale the Catholic spirit and the first rudi- 
ments of faith. 

Father Pardow's interest in the school and its sacred 
mission is evident from the fact that once a week, 
when not absent for the purpose of giving a retreat, 
he explained some point of the catechism to the pupils 
of the higher classes, to all who might be expected to 
understand him, those of ten or eleven years or more. 



THE NEW PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 211 

He took the Sacraments for the subject of his talks, 
and with his power of expression and illustration he 
brought his theme down to the level of their compre- 
hension, and threw a flood of light on the dry memory 
work of the daily lesson. 

Had God spared him, his lessons would, without 
doubt, have made a lasting impression on the children, 
and he would have gathered a richer harvest in the 
school than in the pulpit. But within nine months of 
the opening of the new school the hand of death had 
laid him low. Retreats had kept him busy in the sum- 
mer of 1908, and triduums and retreats far into the 
fall. Though frail in strength, and with lowered vi- 
tality, he continued preaching on every possible occa- 
sion, and freely accepted every invitation. His last 
engagement was a triduum to the Holy Name Society 
of the Church of Our Lady of Grace, in Hoboken, 
which he succeeded in concluding, though under diffi- 
culties. Reduced strength, which he had not noticed, 
the long trip both ways in the dead of winter, the 
coldness of the church, which he complained of, though 
noticeable rather on account of his own state than be- 
cause of the temperature, an imprudent trip across the 
park to bring Holy Communion to a sick lady on Mon- 
day morning after his last sermon, resulted in a severe 
cold. The cold was neglected ; instead of going to bed 
and keeping there, he continued to work, to write; he 
even got up from bed thinly clad to answer a telephone 
call in the chilled corridor. The result was pneumonia 
with which not all the care of the Sisters of Charity 
and the medical staff of St. Vincent's Hospital were 
able to cope. He had been anointed immediately on 



312 FIFTY YEARS IX YORKYILLE 

the discovery of pneumonia, and received Viaticum 
that same Thursday night as soon as an attack of 
nausea was overcome. He received again a few hours 
before his death, on Saturday morning. He was con- 
scious to the very last, and insisted on being clothed 
in his habit despite the inconvenience to himself in his 
dying condition. He died at 3.45 A. M. on Saturday, 
January 83rd, 1909. 

On Sunday afternoon the body was brought to the 
parlor rind was visited by crowds of his friends in life. 
and by many of his converts and others who had made 
his retreats. On Monday it was placed in the church, 
where thousands gathered to see it. The funeral Mass 
was said by the Archbishop surrounded in the sanc- 
tuary by four Bishops, thirteen Monsignori and about 
four hundred Priests. The church was crowded long 
before the Mass, and several thousand persons gathered 
before the church, unable to gain an entrance, but 
anxious to testify by their presence on that cold morn- 
ing their respect for their late pastor. Interment took 
place in the cemetery of Fordham College, the last 
occasion on which any one has been laid to rest there. 

As Father Pardow's life has been well and sympa- 
thetically written, it is unnecessary to enter into lengthy 
details. The esteem in which he was held by his 
superiors is evident from the important offices con- 
fided to his care. He was Socius to the Provincial, 
Instructor of the Third Probation twice. Rector and 
finally Provincial. He was always glad to be relieved 
of these posts of honor in order to have more time for 
the office of his predilection, preacher. His appoint- 
ment to succeed Father McKinnon as Superior here 




Fathsr Pardow 



THE NEW PAROCHIAL SCHOOL 213 

had this advantage in his eyes that he could accept 
invitations freely from outside while doing his share 
at home. 

The author of his life has published a little work, 
entitled "Searchlights of Eternity," which gives his 
characteristic teachings, and recalls to mind forcibly 
the spare figure in the pulpit, his strong voice, earnest 
manner, crisp sentences and nervous gestures, not 
graceful but impressive. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
Gleanings. 

In the course of the narrative of the upbuilding of St. 
Lawrence and St. Ignatius parish some events had to be 
passed over, some persons whom it was desirable to 
mention had to be omitted for a time, so as to secure 
continuity of subject, and avoid making our history- 
take the shape of a necrology. The present chapter 
will contain such events as are of interest to the parish, 
and an account of some laborers whose friends would 
not wish to see them passed over in silence. These 
can rightly be mentioned here, as most of them have 
passed away in the interval between the inception of the 
new church and its more recent interior decoration. 

While Yorkville was yet something apart from the 
great city, and ambitious to perpetuate its own peculiar 
disposition to aloofness and self-sufficiency, it had 
among other institutions the "Yorkville Improvement 
Company" to look after its temporal and moral wel- 
fare. Its action in the latter aim is of interest to our 
parish and neighborhood. When the beautiful resi- 
dences along the East River no longer enjoyed the 
privacy and exclusiveness of former days, and were 
not longer desirable as residences, they soon began to 
change hands or were hired out as places of amuse- 
ment. Jones' Wood, as a picnic ground, brought in 
a revenue that tempted others to profit by the beauty 

214 



GLEANINGS 215 

of properties lying close to the waters of the East 
River. Other recreation places, more inviting even than 
the Wood, were established higher up, and attracted 
patrons from the city who were most unwelcome to the 
staid and conservative Yorkvillers. The noise, the danc- 
ing and revelry up to late hours, or to hours in the 
morning not very early, the free manners of the revel- 
ers, caused concern for the young lest they might be 
contaminated by the excesses of strangers from the city. 
The Improvement Company were determined to protect 
the locality from moral harm, and add to the value 
and beauty of Yorkville. Authority was sought and 
obtained from the legislature to purchase and condemn 
for park purposes the properties which were being used 
in obnoxious ways. Three appraisers were appointed 
by the court and fixed a price which was satisfactory 
to Colonel Livingstone, the owner of that piece of 
ground which was most desired. Two of the ap- 
praisers, Messrs. Sheehy and Coudert, were Catholics, 
and were proud to be instrumental in establishing a 
park by the river from Eighty-Fourth to Eighty-Ninth 
Streets. It was a double boon in those days, though 
probably few of our parish ever visit the spot now. 
One of the assistants in the early days of the 
parish, Father Holzer, received a bare mention, because 
he was but little employed in the ministry. His chief 
work was to say Mass for the Sisters of Mercy, to hear 
their confessions and catechize their children, a work 
of predilection. He was born near Insbruck, in the 
Tyrol in 1817, made his course of philosophy and 
theology there, and was obliged to fly before the revo- 
lutionists of 1848 shortly after his ordination. He 



216 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

came to America and was sent to Guelph, Ontario, to 
look after a German colony in that vicinity. He was 
an indefatigable worker not among the Germans only, 
but among all nationalities. His excursions after stray 
Catholics carried him to distances of sixty, or even 
a hundred miles. He catechized incessantly; for he 
found that few were well grounded in the faith, and 
fewer still had made their First Communion before the 
age of eighteen. A church, a school, a home for the 
aged, a hospital, attest his activity and zeal for the wel- 
fare of his flock. After fourteen years of strenuous, 
exhausting work, he suffered a stroke of paralysis, from 
which he never fully recovered, though he was not com- 
pletely disabled until 1884. He came to Fordham to 
recruit, if possible, and made himself useful as far as his 
strength would allow. But his heart was in Canada, 
and to Canada he returned for a short time, and once 
again, after a brief absence. He came to us for three 
years from 1870 to 1873. He spent six years more at 
St. Francis Xavier's, a short time at the Novitiate, and 
when that was closed, he found a last home and a grave 
at Georgetown, where he died April 23rd, 1888. 

A co-laborer with Father Holzer in Guelph and his 
successor as Superior of that mission, Father John B. 
Archambault, was a fellow laborer at St. Lawrence, 
too. Father Archambault was born at St. Antoine near 
Montreal, Canada, on October 16th, 1825, was a 
student at St. Hyacinth College for seven years, and 
before the completion of his twenty-first year entered 
the Society at Sault-au-Recollet. He was ordained 
priest by Bishop Loughlin in Brooklyn in 1861. He 
spent eight years in Guelph, six of them as Superior, 



GLEANINGS 217 

and had to work hard to follow the apostolic pace set 
him by his predecessor. The change from the long 
walks and longer drives over the poor roads of his 
day to the moderate distances of Yorkville, must have 
been a great relief. He was an expert teacher in his 
younger days, and showed a complete mastery of the 
Jesuit System. His interest in the important mission 
of education lasted down to his old age. Though 
not a preacher, he spoke English remarkably well and 
showed hardly a trace of his French origin. He was 
quiet in his ways, reserved in his dealings with others. 
and had to be discovered by each individual before 
his kindly heart and paternal sympathy were revealed. 
Those who knew him cannot forget him, though the 
number of those who knew and remember him is small 
and growing smaller as the months fly into the past. A 
weak stomach, despite a strong constitution, may have 
robbed him of his due share of Gallic fire and energy. 
He spent five years here from 1871 to 1876. After 
employment in the ministry in various houses as far 
south as Woodstock, Md., he settled down in St. 
Francis Xavier's, where he was at the beck and call 
of any one who wished to go to confession. For many 
years he was in constant demand, and proved himself 
a very useful member of the community. His age, 
experience, knowledge and his perfect balance of tem- 
per made him an agreeable and acceptable refuge for 
his frequent callers from town and from out of town. 
On December 23rd, 1910, he passed to his reward in 
the eighty-sixth year of his age. 

Another resident here for a short twelvemonth was 
Father Joseph Delabays. Like the two noticed above. 



218 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

he had labored in Guelph, Ontario, and in Chatham 
before coming to the States. His duty here was to 
minister to the House of the Good Shepherd, a parish 
in itself. Consequently, he was but little known in 
Yorkville, except, perhaps, to the small boy who noted 
his daily trips to the Home on the East River. He 
was not a man of activity, despite his name, a lover of 
his room when not obliged to fare abroad. In 1892 
his health broke down and he was sent to the Novitiate 
in Frederick, Md., for better care than an invalid could 
receive in a busy parish like St. Joseph's, Troy. He 
lingered until July 11th, 1898, dying in the seventy- 
ninth year of his age. When he could do little else, 
he found a pleasure in giving first lessons in Latin to 
boys who showed inclinations towards the priesthood. 
Some who could not go elsewhere for "a classical train- 
ing owe to him, after God, the blessing of a priestly 
vocation. He was born in Switzerland, November 
10th, 1819, and entered the Society on October 3rd, 
1844. Unlike most Swiss he never succeeded in speak- 
ing English fluently or pronouncing it correctly. 

Rev. Allan McDonnell, a stately representative of a 
Highland clan, spent two years at St. Lawrence in the 
last days of Father Treanor. Up to the time of the 
union of the New York Mission with the Maryland 
Province he had been for nine years assistant to the 
Superior of the Mission, and when relieved of his 
responsible post, he came to this parish. He was born 
at Donaldston in Prince Edward Island on November 
27th, 1825. In his early youth he earned for himself 
the sobriquet of "the good boy" and lived up to the 
title to the day of his death. After some preliminary 



GLEANINGS 219 

training in Latin in his native place he went to the 
Jesuit College in Montreal. He was quick at learning, 
and enjoyed such a reputation in the college that he was 
employed by the Fathers as a prefect of discipline and 
wore a clerical garb. Though early manifesting a de- 
sire for the priesthood, he seemed for a time to waver 
in his resolution, and found it difficult, even in Mon- 
treal, to make up his mind. Finally, after many doubts 
and delays and much prayer, he applied for admission 
to the Society, was received, and began his novitiate in 
France on October 28th, 1850. This finished, and two 
years of philosophy completed, he was about to begin 
his course of theology when he was summoned to join 
a party of Jesuits sailing for New York. The ship, 
enveloped in a dense fog, ran aground on the shore of 
Long Island. Fortunately all the passengers and crew 
were saved and were none the worse for their inhos- 
pitable reception in the New World. For five years 
he was engaged in teaching at St. Francis Xavier's and 
at Fordham, and, though in weak health, he undertook 
a four years' course of theology in Boston. He was 
ordained priest on July 18th, 1864. With the excep- 
tion of one year spent in the Tertianship at Montreal, 
he was employed at St. Francis Xavier's from 1864 to 
1879 as Prefect of Studies, as Minister, as Socius to 
the Superior of the Mission. After leaving here in 
the autumn of 1881, he spent nine years in St. Joseph's 
parish, in Troy, and seven years at Keyser Island as 
Minister and Superior. Advancing in years and never 
robust, he discharged the office of confessor for a 
couple of years at Troy again, at St. Mary's, in Bos- 
ton, and at Jersey City to replace Father Petit. His 



220 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

last days were spent as Confessor to the Scholastics in 
Woodstock, whom he greatly edified by his piety, sim- 
plicity and humility. If he were asked to sweep the 
floor, he would do so with as much submission as if he 
were told to give a retreat. He celebrated his golden 
jubilee in Boston, October 28th, 1900, and had the 
privilege of living to hold his diamond jubilee in 1910. 
On March 12th, 1911, he breathed his last in Wood- 
stock. 1 

In the year 1887-88 Father Edward McTammany 
was engaged here, principally to take the census of the 
parish, a fact that may secure him the remembrance of 
many who otherwise might forget a mere "bird of 
passage." He was a native of Troy, N. Y., born on 
the 28th of July, 1850, and became a student of St. 
Francis College until his admission to the Society on 
July 22nd, 1869. He had distinguished himself in the 
study of mathematics, a branch in which he became 
later in life a successful teacher. At the close of his 
novitiate he was sent back to St. Francis Xavier's to 
teach for two years. He went to England for a review 
of the classics, and to Belgium for a year of philosophy. 
On his return he was engaged for four years in teach- 
ing at St. Francis and at Fordham. In 1879 he began 
the study of Theology and in his third year was raised 
to the priesthood by Bishop Wigger at Seton Hall. 
The Bishop, a Jesuit student himself, wished to raise a 
Jesuit to Holy Orders on the first occasion of ordain- 
ing. Making his wish known, Father Fox who was 
then teaching in Jersey City and was prepared for 
Orders was assigned as the first candidate and Father 

Catalogue and Woodstock Letters, 1912, p. 100. 



GLEANINGS 221 

McTammany was summoned from Woodstock, where 
he, too, was preparing for the Sacrament. Subdea- 
conship, deaconship and priesthood were conferred on 
three succcessive days, the 9th, 10th and 11th of April, 
in a spell of weather that seemed almost arctic to the 
relatives, but tolerable to the levites, to whom the 
great grace of ordination outweighed every climatic 
inconvenience. 

For four years after his ordination Father McTam- 
many taught at Fordham, mathematics and French, 
which were his assigned branch while engaged in col- 
lege work. He made his Tertianship in Frederick, 
Md., in the year 1886-87, and came immediately to 
Yorkville at its close. He was appointed to the Mis- 
sionary Band for one year; but the insidious disease 
that carried him off ultimately would allow no such 
strenuous exertion as the Band called for. Apparently 
he was robust, but the strength was more apparent than 
real. For the rest of his days he settled down to the 
quiet life of teaching mathematics and French, and to 
keeping accounts as treasurer. He spent two more 
years at Fordham, four years at Jersey City, where his 
disease first manifested itself in 1904, eight years at 
different intervals in Georgetown, and his closing days 
in Worcester. Here he was carried off suddenly by 
an attack of nephritis, April 27th, 1906. He was a 
genial, sociable character, and had a smile that was 
extremely attractive to children. Except in company 
of those who knew him well he was silent and diffident. 
He was so as a boy, and so he remained to the end. 

One whom many will remember in the double ca- 
pacity of assistant at one time, and of missionary 



222 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

with his permanent residence here, was Father Patrick 
Gleason. He was a native of Dunmore, County Gal- 
way, Ireland. Born September 17th, 1835, he came to 
New York in early youth, and while earning a living 
during the day, employed the spare hours of his even- 
ings and night in study and class work. He managed 
to pick up enough knowledge of the classics at night 
school to embolden him to apply for admission to the 
Society. As his serious, manly and blameless char- 
acter was well known and appreciated by the Fathers 
of St. Francis Xavier's, he was readily accepted, and 
was sent to Montreal for his novitiate August 14th, 
1862. On its satisfactory completion he returned to 
New York, taught at the College of St. Francis up to 
the end of the school year, June, 1869, and while so 
engaged he made his course of philosophy privately 
under the guidance of one of the Fathers. The next 
three years he spent at St. Mary's College, Montreal, 
teaching and, with a few others like himself, elderly 
and rugged, made the necessary study of theology and 
prepared for ordination. He was raised to the priest- 
hood in 1872, and was sent back to his old post in New 
York. Here he spent three more years in college and 
parochial work. He then had one year of missionary 
work which was to be his occupation for the greater 
portion of his active life. To prepare for this he made 
his Tertianship at West Park, 1876-1877, and devoted 
thirteen full years to that laborious and fruitful min- 
istry. However, it was not without a break. Five 
years were spent as Master of Novices at West Park, 
a grateful rest for soul and body, a delightful contrast 
between the tender conscience of novices and the spirit- 



GLEANINGS 223 

ual derelicts who were liable at any moment to present 
themselves before his confessional. When he was no 
longer able to endure the heroic work of the mis- 
sionary, and he continued it until he was seventy years 
of age, he was called upon to discharge the less bur- 
densome duties of spiritual Father in various houses. 
Acting as such in Brooklyn College, he was overtaken 
by his last (and probably his first) sickness and was 
transferred to St. Andrew to prepare himself for death. 
He passed away at the age of seventy-five, on April 
2nd, 1910, after a long, useful and holy life. He was 
of middle height, robust constitution, full and florid 
face, mild and retiring in character. The tones of his 
voice were very deep, round and mellow, and coupled 
with his sweet smile and his kind and sympathetic 
looks, they must have emboldened many a hardened 
sinner to nerve himself for the hard task of self-revela- 
tion and self-accusation in the Sacrament of Penance. 
Somewhat akin to Father Gleason in spirit and in 
body (though on a smaller scale) was Father James 
Noonan who was stationed here for a twelve month, 
1893-4. He was born in County Cork, Ireland, on 
March 13th, 1841. He ambitioned the foreign mis- 
sions, and to gratify his desires he joined the Josephite 
Fathers at Mill Hill, London. His sound judgment 
and even temper with suave manners marked him out 
as a fit Superior for the colony destined for work 
among the colored people in America. He settled 
down in Baltimore as the most eligible centre for the 
mission entrusted to him, and took over St. Francis 
Xavier's Church, which the Jesuits had fitted up and 
were using for the colored Catholics. Misunderstand- 



224 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

ing the conditions of affairs in America, the authorities 
in London made regulations that seemed to Father 
Noonan to hamper the work and make his efforts of 
doubtful value and his position undesirable, if not use- 
less. He determined to solve the problem of his 
usefulness by resigning his post as Provincial of the 
Josephites, and asked to be admitted into the Society. 
The present writer happened to ride with Fr. Noonan 
in a hack at the funeral of the Apostle of the Negroes 
in Baltimore, Father Peter Miller, S. J., and hearing 
words of discontent with the condition of the colored 
Mission concluded that his hold on his post was a very 
insecure one. Next he heard that his fellow-rider at 
the funeral was Father Noonan, Provincial of the 
Josephites, and that he had been admitted as a Novice 
in Frederick, Md., on the 27th of December, 1877. 
He joined the Novices on their walks and excursions, in 
their works and their games, in all their exercises just 
as if he were a boy recently freed from the classes of a 
High School. When this period of trial was over and 
he had taken the simple vows of religion, he was sent 
to Providence, R. I., where he labored for two years 
and to which he returned on two subsequent occasions, 
spending in all eleven years, during four of which he 
was Superior. After his first sojourn in Providence 
he was transferred to St. Aloysius Church in Wash- 
ington, D. C, for seven years. The next two periods 
in Providence were separated by his solitary year at 
Yorkville, and were followed by five years in Jamaica, 
W. L, where he was Jesuit Superior and, if reports say 
true, where he was proposed as candidate for the epis- 
copate to rule over the Island. On his return from the 



GLEANINGS 225 

tropics he spent two years in Boston to cool off, and 
thereafter retired to St. Aloysius Church for the re- 
mainder of his days. Worn out by his labors, he 
departed this life on the 4th of November, 1915. 

In a world's crisis he would not be consulted by the 
diplomats of Washington, though he might give them 
very shrewd advice for higher interests than national 
advantages; but to the Munster men and women of 
Swamp Poodle, an unpoetic name given to a portion 
of St. Aloysius' parish, he was a power for good, for 
peace, for piety and sobriety, and as much might be 
said for St. Joseph's parish in Providence, R. I. He 
was a good man, simple, unsuspecting, a perfect tar- 
get for harmless mischief, soft-spoken, kind-hearted, 
silent and secretive, not ready to take offense and 
never willing to give it, and ever ready to sacrifice 
himself for others. 

Church Bulletins had for some years been estab- 
lished in various churches in the principal cities 
throughout the country, and were found a useful 
medium for the diffusion of news concerning services, 
devotions and functions in the church, and for com- 
municating notices that otherwise might escape the 
attention of persons whom the pastor might wish to 
reach. St. Lawrence's determined to avail itself of so 
valuable an ally. It sent forth its first number in 
October, 1891, bearing on its cover the following 
quotation from Leo XIII : "A Catholic Calendar is a 
perpetual mission in every parish." It can scarcely be 
said that such an exalted expectation has been realized 
as yet; however, much useful advice has been conveyed, 
many valuable quotations from Saints, Doctors and 



226 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Bishops, instructive and edifying, which otherwise 
would never meet the gaze of our parishioners, have 
been placed before their eyes. The importance of the 
Parochial School and of Catholic education has been 
insisted on in the past, and an account of doings in the 
school has been regularly laid before the parents, who 
were enabled to interpret that account by the success 
of their children manifested by examinations, enter- 
tainments and Commencement Exercises. The first 
Bulletins were sold for five cents a copy, enough, with 
a few paid advertisements, to meet the expenses of 
printing, and enough, too, to defeat the object of issu- 
ing the publication ; for but few would buy even at five 
cents, and so but few would read the announcements. 
If several churches issued Bulletins, a publisher could 
supply copies gratis, and recoup himself from adver- 
tisements that were widely circulated. 

When St. Ignatius became co-titular with St. Law- 
rence, the Bulletin became the Calendar, having the 
plan of the new church on the front cover, and ap- 
peared for the first time on March 1st, 1898. It was 
printed without advertisements by the Meany Printing 
Company, but of course they intended to secure, and 
did secure, advertisements to pay expenses. However, 
the venture passed later into other hands. The saluta- 
tory notice is as follows : "Without introduction and 
without apology, St. Ignatius Church Calendar makes 
its debut. It will aim at being a reliable means of 
communication between the clergy and the people of 
St. Ignatius' Church, and a guide to the various ser- 
vices, society meetings and other church events. It 
will also supply interesting, timely and instructive read- 



GLEANINGS 227 

ing matter as far as space will permit." By 1900, the 
original cover and the original title were resumed, and 
so we have once more The Church Bulletin, but of St. 
Ignatius Loyola, instead of St. Lawrence. In 1910 
the size was enlarged to its present dimensions and a 
cut of the church, as it now stands, was printed on the 
cover. If a complete set were in existence it would 
contain many interesting items of parochial history, 
spiritual and material. When our present school chil- 
dren celebrate the centennial of the parish, the second 
volume of this history will recall to their minds many 
facts recorded in St. Ignatius Church Bulletin. 

Before closing this section of parochial gleanings, it 
is fitting to narrate the ultimate division of the original 
territory of the Yorkville parish. On October 21st, 
1866, the following notice was read at all the Masses 
to remove any doubt existing in people's minds as to 
parochial rights and obligations : "All those who be- 
long to this church are to know that, according to 
regulations, it is in this church they are to be christened 
and married. The boundaries of this parish are: 
West, Eighth Avenue; east, East River; north, 100th 
Street; south, Sixty-Fifth Street. 

Seven years later the Chancery Office, December 
29th, 1873, sent out a printed form defining the limits 
of each parish. Our limits were: North, 96th Street; 
east, East River; south, 75th Street; West, Central 
Park. St. Vincent Ferrer's cut off ten blocks of our 
southern territory in 1867, and the projected parish of 
St. Cecilia appropriated six blocks on the northern 
boundary, while St. Monica's Church absorbed the 
territory east of Second Avenue, as we have seen. 



228 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

In 1886 the new parish of Our Lady of Good Coun- 
sel was organized and took away a large strip of our 
northeastern territory. The cornerstone of the new 
church was blessed and laid by Most Rev. Michael 
Corrigan, D. D., on May 2nd, 1886. The original 
limits were Eighty-Sixth Street on the south and Nine- 
ty-Sixth Street on the north, Third Avenue on the west 
and East River on the east. In the year 1913, Ninety- 
Fifth Street was made the northern limit. If Father 
Gockeln's plan of building our parochial school on 
Second Avenue and Eighty-Fifth Street had been ex- 
ecuted, it would be now, and would have been long 
ago, outside the parish boundaries, and would have 
served the needs of two parishes, but not our own. 
The location was central at that time, and would be a 
convenient one if the city would only remain stationary. 
Among the many good things Father Treanor did, one 
of the best was the sale of the property intended by 
Father Gockeln for a school. The carving out in the 
southern and southeastern section of two parishes 
already from our former territory, showed Father 
Treanor what was going to happen in the northeastern 
and northern portion. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Boy Choir. 

When, in 1906, in obedience to the Motu proprio of 
Pius X., the mixed choir of St. Ignatius Church was 
disbanded, the burden of furnishing all the music neces- 
sary for the services fell upon the male quartet. In 
the spring of 1907, Reverend N. N. McKinnon, pastor 
of the church, and Reverend Martin J. Scott, in charge 
of the altar boys, decided after due deliberation that a 
Boy Choir was highly desirable. As an experiment, 
Masters Leo Ruggeri and Charles Manning, the choir's 
foundation stones, sang at Benediction. Gradually 
new recruits were added, the flourishing parochial 
school affording a supply of promising material. Be- 
fore long Mr. Bruno Oscar Klein, organist of the 
church, had at his command a group of fifteen singers, 
and the training of the choir was begun. At first 
nothing elaborate was attempted, the new choristers 
merely joining the male quartet in simple selections, 
but the success of the experiment was so marked that 
Father Scott was encouraged to proceed rapidly with 
the choir's organization. Mr. Klein's capable training 
soon began to bear fruit, and in September, 1907, the 
Boy Choir emerged from its semi-obscurity and be- 
came an institution, with an original membership of 
twenty-two. 

First steps are always the most difficult, and the new 
Choir was surrounded by obstacles, not the least of 

229 



230 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

which was the defective supply in the music library. 
The repertory was small, and scores were few; but 
little by little this state of things was remedied. New 
numbers were acquired as rapidly as possible, and, 
after a few years of patience and perseverance, the St. 
Ignatius Boy Choir possesses, at the present time, a 
library in which all the great masters of ecclesiastical 
music are represented. As the possibilities of the 
Choir increased, new members were added, until, in 
1913, its full strength of forty-four choristers was 
reached. Two years after the founding of the Choir 
proper, a Junior Choir was formed, whose members 
were recruited from among the younger boys of the 
parish, ten years old or thereabouts, and trained in 
theory and voice culture for two years by Mr. Albert 
Farrington. Thus, when the older boys' voices failed, 
or vacancies occurred for other reasons, an abundance 
of new material was always at hand for reinforcement, 
and the Choir's high standard of excellence was rigor- 
ously maintained. 

That St. Ignatius Choir was to become one of the 
finest in New York was not to be left to chance. In 
Father Scott the boys possessed an organizer whose 
energy and interest were devoted to bringing his Choir 
up to the highest standard of efficiency for the honor 
of God and St. Ignatius. In this aim he had, as pre- 
viously stated, the valuable cooperation of Mr. Klein. 
On the death of the latter in the spring of 1910, Dr. 
John Philip Foley succeeded him as organist and choir- 
master. Dr. Foley was a painstaking and efficient 
director, under whom the choristers steadily improved 
in feeling and artistic finish. At about this time Mr. 



THE BOY CHOIR 231 

Farrington became Master of Vocalization, a notable 
advantage to the young singers. It is largely to his 
efforts that the boys owe the exquisite tone quality 
which is one of their distinguishing characteristics. 
In 1913, the Choir was fortunate in securing the ser- 
vices of Dr. Nicholas J. Elsenheimer, one of the best 
choir directors in America. Under his leadership it 
soon began to attract the attention of some of the fore- 
most musicians in New York. A gentleman of critical 
judgment, who had travelled all over the world, re- 
marked to Father Scott, after having heard the St. 
Ignatius Boy Choir, that nowhere outside of the Sistine 
Chapel had he heard one which could equal it. The 
boys were fortunate enough also to win the enthusiastic 
commendation of Mr. John McCormack, who made a 
special visit to St. Ignatius' to hear them sing. In 
1914, the New York Evening Post sent its musical 
critic to the different churches of the city on a tour 
of observation, and for a number of weeks a column 
of the Saturday edition of the paper was devoted to 
Boy Choirs. St. Ignatius' was the chief subject of 
one of the articles, and in it the writer, after having 
praised the Choir at length, declared that there were 
just three good Boy Choirs in the city, and that St. 
Ignatius' was one of them. An even more notable 
compliment was paid to it by Dr. Koemmenich, suc- 
cessor of Dr. Damrosch as director of the New York 
Oratorio Society. It was desirable that a Boy Choir 
should take part in the production of Wolf-Ferrari's 
oratorio "La Vita Nuova," and the choice fell upon 
the Choir of St. Ignatius. The oratorio was produced 
in March, 1915, at Carnegie Hall, and Dr. Koem- 



232 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

menich was so pleased with the boys' artistic work that 
he invited them to participate in the elaborate produc- 
tion of "J oan of Arc," scheduled for 1916. However, 
owing to the continually increasing demands made 
upon the boys for the church services, the honor was 
declined. Perhaps the most notable figure in the ranks 
of the Choir of St. Ignatius during its nine years of 
existence was Master Bernard Kennedy. Gifted with 
a voice of rare beauty and purity, Bernard, as first 
soprano, soon made a reputation, not only within the 
parish limits, but throughout the city as well. Entirely 
free from self-consciousness, sunny in disposition, 
courteous in manner, though none the less a real boy 
in the fullest sense of the word, he endeared himself 
to everyone, and a promising career seemed to await 
him. But God willed otherwise. On September 8, 
1915, He called the rare little singer suddenly to Him- 
self before any earthly blight should mar his perfection. 
But with the best individual talent in the world, no 
Choir could hold together without discipline and an 
esprit de corps sufficient to surmount all obstacles, and 
the Boy Choir of St. Ignatius has had the advantage 
of both to the fullest extent. The boys are, like all 
boys, full of life and fun, and when the Choir was 
being formed, it cost them not a little to give up so 
much of their time to rehearsals, of which there are 
several a week. But they were for the most part music 
lovers, and, as they came to understand the personal 
interest taken in each one of them, and the immense 
advantages which were theirs in the training received, 
they responded generously to all calls made upon them. 
But notwithstanding the boys' interest in their work, 



THE BOY CHOIR 233 

they thoroughly agreed with those in charge of them 
that all work and no play is just as fatal as all play 
and no work, and when games or an occasional outing 
were in order, there were no absentees. A great 
problem to be faced in the forming of the Choir was 
the lack of endowment, but the boys' splendid work 
won them many friends, who took it upon themselves 
to provide for their amusement and recreation. As a 
consequence, baseball games, picnics, and other recrea- 
tions were of frequent occurrence. Best of all, an 
annual trip to Coney Island was arranged by Mrs. 
Nicholas F. Brady. Automobiles transported the ex- 
pectant group, and a long day of bathing, sight-seeing 
and shows, punctuated midway by a satisfying repast, 
in no way disappointed the most sanguine. When no 
excursions were possible, home picnics in the Choir 
Room did duty for them, and many an impromptu 
concert by absent prime donne and tenori through the 
medium of the Victrola proved a restful interlude when 
rehearsals were strenuous. In addition, Father Scott 
founded a library for their use which was liberally 
patronized. 

And the boys were not ungrateful to the kind friends 
who were thus mindful of their entertainment. Occa- 
sional informal concerts were given by them to their 
good friends. In the early days of the Choir, these 
concerts were modest, and were given for the purpose 
of causing pleasure to their parents and friends, and 
of showing their progress. At first the boys were so 
few and their accomplishments so limited that they 
joined forces with the Altar Boys, and those first public 
appearances in the Hall of St. Ignatius School were 



234 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

the beginning of an experience which was later to stand 
them in good stead when larger and more critical aud- 
iences were faced. 

Soon the Choir was able to stand alone, and a num- 
ber of delightful, if still informal, entertainments were 
the result. The next step was to show their apprecia- 
tion of the kindness of certain influential parishioners 
of St. Ignatius who had been so solicitious for the boys' 
own entertainment and recreation. 

Such a brilliant light as the St. Ignatius Boy Choir 
had now become was not to be hid under a bushel, and 
from all sides requests for the privilege of hearing it 
were received. The boys took part in a number of 
public functions at convents and elsewhere. One of 
the most ambitious efforts of the St. Ignatius Boy 
Choir, in addition to their share in the Vita Nuova 
Oratorio, was the concert given at the Hotel Plaza, 
March 23, 1914, for the benefit of the St. Ignatius Day 
Nursery, under the patronage of its Ladies' Auxiliary. 
Thirty-three members of the Boy Choir, assisted by 
the seven adult members of the Choir, presented a 
programme of great musical distinction, under the 
direction of the Choirmaster, Dr. Nicholas J. Elsen- 
heimer, ably seconded by the Organist of the Church, 
Mr. Frederick T. Short. The first part of the pro- 
gramme was devoted to sacred music, and Mozart, 
Hasler, and Arcadelt, to name only a few of the 
Masters represented, enabled the Choir to substantiate 
its claims to a place in the first rank of interpreters of 
church music. The second part was devoted to modern 
Masters. 

In the summer of 1915, Father Scott having been 



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THE BOY CHOIR 235 

transferred to a new field of labor, the superintendence 
of the Choir passed to Reverend Francis P. Powers. 
Father Powers himself instructs and directs the singers, 
assisted by Mr. Farrington in the purely vocal training. 
The high traditions of the Choir continue uninter- 
rupted, and the boys develop steadily in accuracy and 
delicacy of rendition. It is intended that every choris- 
ter shall be able to read his part at sight, as well as 
to render with appreciation and feeling the passages 
taught him. 

This enthusiastic appreciation of the Boy Choir is 
given a place in our history, because its establishment 
belongs to the time under consideration, and its merits 
put our Church in a class apart up to the present. 
There are but few such Choirs and fewer still have 
won the approbation of experts. So far, nothing has 
been said about our choirs, volunteer or paid, because 
the character of the narrative scarcely admitted their 
inclusion. The long list of names of organists and 
singers, if complete, would be of little interest without 
a biographical sketch, would be nothing more than a 
page of a directory, and if incomplete, as it would be 
now after a lapse of sixty years, it would be a source 
of dissatisfaction to the relatives of those omitted from 
the list. The aim has been to chronicle the growth of 
the parish and parochial institutions with the pastor 
always as the centre of interest. Any other plan would 
make the history unwieldy in bulk and a patch-work of 
unrelated reminiscences. 

There is, however, one exception that ought to be 
made in favor of an organist, a singer and parochial 



236 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

worker, one whose benefactions did not cease with her 
life, but continued after her death, Eleanor A. Beaty. 
From her girlhood on, she was actively and unobtru- 
sively engaged in every movement in which she could 
have a part, not as one pushing herself forward to 
notoriety, but as one ever ready to lend a hand even 
when the work was unattractive or repulsive to her. 
It certainly was not because of its attractiveness that 
she cooperated with Father Walker in his efforts to 
reform the most degraded elements of the parish to 
whom by preference he devoted himself. In every 
other line of work, too, she could be counted on, in 
the Sodality, in the League, as a Collector for the 
School, in everything. When God called her away, she 
continued to aid the church by a handsome legacy which 
helped materially towards the latest improvements. 

One more item remains to be gleaned from the later 
history of the parish, the completion of the new 
Monstrance. Coming to Yorkville from St. Francis 
Xavier's, Father McKinnon had the ambition to make 
St. Ignatius' as much of a sanctuary, as beautiful a 
temple of the Living God, as he had left on Sixteenth 
Street. He knew the city well ; he knew that he could 
rely on the generosity of friends and parishioners where 
there was a question of the beauty of God's house, and 
in his mind there could be no house beautiful enough 
or rich enough for the enshrined majesty of God. He 
could in his own mild, quiet way communicate his own 
devotion and enthusiasm of heart to the fervent, and 
make them feel that in giving to God's service they 
were but enriching and honoring themselves. 

Knowing that among the rich there was much gold 



THE BOY CHOIR 237 

and silver and jewelry, that would never be put to any 
use in personal adornment, that, owing to inheritance 
or sentimental reasons, the owners would never con- 
sent to sell such articles, he made an appeal to such 
persons to give to God what they could not use them- 
selves, and consecrate to His service objects which they 
regarded as too sacred for any other purpose. He 
wanted a Monstrance in keeping with the splendor of 
the new church, one that would worthily, as far as 
possible, enshrine the Master of Life in a receptacle 
constructed of the most precious material and freighted 
with the most precious personal memories. The con- 
gregation responded nobly. Rings, ear-rings, medals, 
pendants, brooches, clusters, chains, jeweled crosses, 
stars, every possible form of adornment, came pouring 
in, money too, in considerable sums, added to the con- 
tributions. Before he could see the fruit of his appeal, 
Father McKinnon was called to his reward, and left to 
his successor, Father Pardow, the task of completing 
the Monstrance. He, too, had his friends, and they 
vied with one another in contribution of valuables. It 
takes a considerable quantity of such to make a Mon- 
strance weighing sixteen pounds, yet that quantity was 
contributed, and was handed over to the Gorham Com- 
pany whose design was accepted. The contract was 
closed in March, 1908, and by November the Mon- 
strance was finished. On Sunday, 29th, it was exposed 
to the view of the congregation after Vespers. It 
rested on a table beside which Father Pardow sat 
within the sanctuary. All who were present in the 
church filed past and examined the new article of altar 
furniture and admired its beauty and richness. 



238 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVTLLX 

From the foot to the top of the cross surmounting 
the rays it measures five feet four inches, is twenty-two 
inches across the rays and weighs sixteen pounds. The 
base and shank are of massive silver, gold plated, and 
the circular holder of the lunette with the long emanat- 
ing rays is of solid gold. Here and there on the 
triangular base are fitted jewels, but the body surround- 
ing the crystal is ornamented with many kinds of 
precious stones artistically distributed, and all directed 
to the Host within, all in their own way doing Him 
honor. The value runs into five figures and the work- 
manship is worthy of the artists, and of the sacred 
purpose to which they directed their skill. The Mon- 
strance is used on days of exposition, Forty Hours and 
on the First Fridays of the month. Its weight is such 
that it is not available for processions of the Blessed 
Sacrament. Hence a lighter Monstrance must be sub- 
stituted on those occasions. 

Before dealing with the last improvements to the 
church a word must be said about three who labored 
in it for a time and are now no more. The earliest 
of these in point of time and vocation is Father Francis 
G. Gunn. He was born in Williamsburg, now included 
in Greater New York, April 10th, 1850, and entered 
the Society on October 8th, 1872. He made his two 
years of novitiate in Belgium, and crossed over to 
England for a review of his classical studies for the 
space of one year, and returned to Belgium at the end 
of the year to begin a three years' course of philosophy. 
He returned to the United States in 1878 and began his 
five years' course of teaching as a Scholastic. He 
went to Woodstock, Md., for his theology in 1883, and 



THE BOY CHOIR 239 

was ordained there in August, 1886, by the newly 
created Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore. His Third 
Year was spent in Frederick. As his health, never 
strong, seemed nearing a breakdown, he was assigned 
to the high and dry atmosphere of Denver, Colorado. 
Coming east after a year, he was engaged in teaching 
classics in Baltimore for a twelvemonth, and in 
Philadelphia for two years. The long hours in these 
branches were a tax on his strength, and for relief he 
was assigned to parochial work in the little church of 
St. Joseph's in Philadelphia for the space of two years. 
For the next ten years he taught the sciences at Wor- 
cester, St. Francis Xavier's and Philadelphia. His 
hours were short, yet his health broke down, and a 
year's rest was deemed necessary. This he spent in 
Worcester. From there he came to Yorkville, where 
he did such light work as he was capable of for three 
years. In 1908, he sought relief in the bracing air of 
Worcester once more, and was able to teach a class of 
mathematics for four years. He died there on July 
9th, 1912. His frail health left him but little joy in 
life, of the natural order, and, though his countenance 
ordinarily gave the impression of some calamity en- 
dured in the past, still he could laugh heartily at a good 
saying, and could contribute his share to the stock of 
innocent merriment when he felt well and felt at home ; 
for by nature he was retiring and sensitive and little 
disposed to assert himself. 

The second of the three lately deceased laborers in 
our church in the days of Father McKinnon was 
Father George A. Fargis. He was born in New York 
on July 29th, 1854. He made his studies at St. Francis 



240 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Xavier's, and at the age of nineteen he sought admis- 
sion into the Society. He began his novitiate in Can- 
ada, August 14th, 1873, and reviewed his classical 
studies at Roehampton, England, for one year, after 
which he began the study of philosophy in Louvain. 
When his three years of philosophy were completed, 
he returned to America, and was assigned to teaching 
in St. Peter's College, Jersey City. He was a gifted 
man in many ways, but he excelled particularly in 
mathematics, and in a knowledge of music. Accord- 
ingly, we find him teaching mathematics or working 
at applied mathematics in astronomy during the greater 
portion of his active career. As a Scholastic he taught 
two years at St. Peter's and three at Fordham. In 
1884 he commenced the study of theology at Wood- 
stock. Among the professors there we had an eminent 
theologian, Father Brambring, a German of the Ger- 
mans, who took a particular delight in bringing out 
the French element in Mr. Fargis. On a dull day he 
was sure to spring some unexpected question on Mr. 
Fargis, fully confident that the answer would dispel 
any remnant of gloom superinduced by the weather. 
The letter g was pronounced in the hardest manner of 
the German tongue and elicited a smile all around, 
while the quick and original answer was sure to pro- 
voke a laugh, heartier in the professor than in any one 
else. The laugh over, we settled down to the explana- 
tion or proof of some abstruse thesis in dogma. At 
the end of his third year, Father Fargis received Holy 
Orders, in August, 1887, but continued in Woodstock 
for one year more. 

After the completion of his course in theology he 



THE BOY CHOIR 241 

taught science in Jersey City for a year before making 
his Third Probation. For five years, 1890 to 1895, 
he was stationed in Georgetown, teaching, and working 
in the astronomical observatory. Scarcely was he 
settled down to his new duties than he attacked a prob- 
lem which was most important of solution, to determine 
by photography the exact moment that any star passes 
the meridian, to make the star itself by its image de- 
termine the instant of passage. He constructed an 
instrument, which he called the Photochrono graph, 
which astronomers had been looking for since 1849. 
Those only who are engaged in astronomical work can 
appreciate the importance and the simplicity of the 
instrument, and give due credit to the inventor. But 
Father Fargis had other powers than those of a mathe- 
matician or inventive astronomer. Though he may 
not deserve the name of orator, he was an impres- 
sive, forceful and distinctly original preacher, and as 
a conductor of retreats he left a lasting impression on 
his hearers. There was but little opportunity for 
preaching at Georgetown College, and to throw open 
this field for his activity he was sent to Boston College 
to teach science and to preach in the Immaculate Con- 
ception Church. He labored zealously for seven years, 
and won much esteem and admiration for himself. 
For a rest he was sent back to Georgetown for three 
years more, still teaching science. For two years, 
1905-7, he preached, lectured, labored here, and was 
next assigned to the missionary band with residence 
at Kohlman Hall, his principal occupation being to give 
retreats and triduums in Colleges and Academies. He 
continued this ministry for six years until a paralytic 



242 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

stroke ended his activity. He fought hard to regain 
his powers, but it was evident that he could no longer 
command his native energy of body or keenness of 
mind. He was given an easy post, that of Spiritual 
Father in Jersey City, but even that he could not fill 
to the end of the year. The last two years of his life 
he spent alternately between St. Vincent's Hospital as 
a patient, and St. Francis Xavier's as an invalid, no 
longer able to engage in active work. Inactivity to 
one of his temperament was a heavy cross, but one 
which he bore with all the resignation which he incul- 
cated in his retreats. He died on July 31st, 1916. 

Father Jeremiah Coleman spent the last days of his 
energetic life as a member of the staff of St. Ignatius. 
He was born for energy, and in energy he passed his 
life until the breakdown. He saw the light first in 
Brooklyn, son of an Irishman born in England, and of 
a mother a native of Ireland. If the land of his birth 
ever influenced the father, the influence failed to reach 
the son, arrested perhaps in the cradle by the songs and 
prayers and stories of the mother. He came to life 
on August 20th, 1851, and was educated in Catholic 
schools until he went to St. Francis Xavier's College. 
His father's death prevented him from following his 
ambition for the priesthood, as he was obliged for the 
support of his family to conduct their business for a 
number of years. When financial difficulties were at 
last overcome, he begged to be admitted to the Society, 
and his petition was granted. He entered the novitiate 
at the Sault near Montreal, July 30th, 1874. Many a 
hard battle he had in his younger days to curb the im- 
petuosity of his ardent nature, and long the battle 



THE BOY CHOIR 243 

lasted, and many were the victories won and rich the 
merit acquired in the strife. After two years he pro- 
nounced his first vows, and was sent to Florissant, 
Mo., to review his classical studies for one year, after 
which he went to Woodstock, Md., for philosophy. 
His teaching term completed, he returned to Wood- 
stock for theology and was raised to the priesthood on 
August 29th, 1885. In 1887 he made his Third Pro- 
bation in Frederick, Md., under Father Cardella, and 
prepared himself for ministerial work, which lasted 
as long as his activity. He was made Superior of the 
mission in Whitemarsh for three years, pastor of St. 
John's Church in Frederick, Md., for nine years, where 
the easy-going character of the people was a perpetual 
cross to his ardent Celtic temperament. He worked 
off some of his surplus vitality in the difficult mission 
of Jamaica, and found himself a very unwilling sub- 
ject of Queen Victoria for four years. However, his 
grudged allegiance in no way interfered with his zeal 
for the poor, ignorant, colored population. He was 
assigned to duty at St. Francis Xavier's for three years 
from 1902 to 1905. By this time lighter work became 
a necessity, though not a choice. Idleness never found 
an entrance into his composition. He was given in- 
ternal work at Woodstock for one year, and for three 
more filled the post of treasurer at St. Andrew's, 
Poughkeepsie. Growing asthma deprived him of 
power to discharge even this light office, and for one 
year he could do no more than look after his health. 
His distressing malady occasioned him much suffering, 
but never took away his unfailing cheerfulness, though 
it did help to dampen his natural ardor. The last four 



244 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

years of his life were spent in Yorkville, where he did 
whatever little work his health would allow within the 
community and in the parish during his last months. 
He died on February 24th, 1914, and was taken to 
Poughkeepsie for his last sleep. He was as straight- 
forward as he was ardent, and to his last day guile in 
action and indifference to God's law were a mystery 
of the human heart which he could not penetrate. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
Last Touches. 

After a vacancy of four months, following the death 
of Father Pardow, a Superior of St. Ignatius Church 
and Residence was appointed on May 20th in the per- 
son of Reverend David W. Hearn. He was actually 
Prefect of Studies in Boston College at the time of his 
appointment. He was not untried or inexperienced in 
New York; for from 1900 to 1907 he had been Rector 
of St. Francis Xavier's, and his experience and his 
wide acquaintance were of value to him in his new 
post. Familiarity with two such churches as the Im- 
maculate Conception in Boston and St. Francis Xavier's 
in N«w York would inspire any one with noble aims 
for such a building as St. Ignatius' Church on such a 
site, even if he had not, as Father Hearn had, an 
acquaintance at first hand with several of the noblest 
cathedrals of Europe. Many of these, dating from 
the maligned Middle Ages, by their vast proportions, 
their beauty and richness of ornamentation, are the 
despair of modern builders and lovers of art. They 
cannot be reproduced ; but they may inspire a lover of 
the beautiful to do what lies in his power with the 
means at hand. 

Save for the towers, St. Ignatius was finished ex- 
teriorly. In the interior much could still be done with 
means, or could be left undone in default of means. 
Father Hearn was not the man to sit down and let 

245 



246 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

things drift during his incumbency. Much had been 
done by his predecessors ; he would do what lay in 
his power. Taking time to consider what was most 
urgent, and taking soundings for ways and means to 
carry out contemplated improvements, he spent several 
thoughtful months. After a year in office he had his 
plans well matured, and found encouragement enough, 
from those who could contribute large sums, to au- 
thorize him to begin. His project was an ambitious 
one, to put in stained glass windows throughout the 
Upper Church, to get mosaic Stations of the Cross, 
to ornament the main apse with three large mosaics 
representing the great events in the life of St. Ignatius, 
to cover the walls and pilasters of the church with 
marble in harmony with the frescoed vaults, to sub- 
stitute marble in the vestibule for the wooden flooring 
and for plaster on the walls, finally to enlarge the 
Lower Church, and erect six altars instead of two. 
The ultimate improvements included more than this; 
but even this much called for a large stock of faith 
and hope animated with no small amount of love for 
the beauty of the Lord's house. Neither faith nor 
hope nor love went bankrupt even in hard times. In 
the May Bulletin of 1910 we read : 

"Many have been urging for a long time the comple- 
tion of the decoration of our beautiful church. . . . 
Many have expressed a desire to help in the work, and 
frequent inquiries have been macje as to the cost of 
windows, stations and other features of decoration. 
Before this we could not give a definite answer to these 
inquiries, but at last we are able to submit an exact 
statement. 



LAST TOUCHES 247 

"Three great mosaic panels of St. Ignatius in marble 
setting are to be placed in the sanctuary behind the 
High Altar at a cost of 4,000 dollars each. 

"Fourteen mosaic Stations of the Cross in marble 
setting are to be erected on the walls of the church at 
a cost of 28,000 dollars. 

"Two large transept windows, 1,250 dollars each. 

"Seven eliptical windows in the bays over the sta- 
tions. 650 dollars each. 

"Fifteen clerestory windows, 225 dollars each. 

"In going on with this work we are entirely de- 
pendent on individual subscriptions, as it would be 
impossible to undertake it with the ordinary revenues 
of the church in the face of our present large indebted- 
ness. At the same time we are confident that our 
people will take a deep interest in this matter and 
hasten to our assistance. 

"Within the past few months two Stations of the 
Cross have been donated, one by Mr. Hugh J. Grant, 
and the other by a friend who Wishes to remain 
unknown for the present; and only last week Mrs. 
William Schickel donated one of the transept windows 
in memory of her departed husband, the distinguished 
architect of this church." 

The announcements of May 1st contained the fol- 
lowing admonition : 

"The attention of all is called to a very special page 
in the Church Bulletin on the completion of our Church 
Decorations. It is a matter of supreme interest to us 
all, and we trust and pray that there will be a very 
hearty response to our appeal." The appeal was not 
made in vain, for on the Sunday following this an- 



248 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

nouncement was made : "We are pleased to announce 
that one transept window and two mosaics were 
donated during the week, in response to the appeal 
made last Sunday. We hope to be able soon to an- 
nounce other similar donations." The hope was ful- 
filled, for on the Sunday following, on May 15th, we 
read : "During the past week another station has been 
donated, and one of the mosaic panels for the sanctuary 
behind the main altar. This is most gratifying. Half 
the stations have been donated, and we hope soon to 
have donors for the others." 

Father Hearn, feeling sure of support, determined 
to begin his improvements with the enlargement of the 
Lower Church. The Mass at 10:15 was crowded to 
overflowing every Sunday, and the space was none too 
large for the growing number of children at the 9 
o'clock Mass. Furthermore, it was difficult to accom- 
modate the Priests who should say Mass there during 
the week. Besides the Main Altar there was but one 
other, the Blessed Virgin's Altar, in the church. The 
other side was occupied by a wheezy organ and choir 
space. A new organ without a wheeze was erected in 
a bay at the foot of the middle aisle, and the Lower 
Church was extended back to the full length of the 
U^>per Church by taking in the old parochial hall 
beneath the sanctuary of the Upper Church. Thus 
a spacious sanctuary with room for six altars was 
secured, besides thirteen additional pews through the 
entire width of the church and space moreover for 
four extra confessionals, no slight convenience when 
there is a rush of penitents. The new altars were 
found an even greater convenience when the writers 



LAST TOUCHES 249 

of "America" removed from Washington Square to 
East Eighty-Third Street and were added to the com- 
munity of St. Ignatius. 

The High Altar of Caen stone and marble resting 
on a dark polished base, and Gothic in style (because 
originally the church projected was to be in that style), 
was moved back to occupy the central apse and in like 
manner the Lady Altar of white marble was moved 
into the south apse resting against the wall. The 
superimposed statue of Our Lady is thrown into relief 
by the decoration of the apse. Corresponding to this 
altar, a client of St. Joseph donated enough money to 
erect a marble altar and statue of St. Joseph in the 
north apse. A flood of light from hidden electric bulbs 
illuminates these three altars and makes the saying of 
Mass a luxury as well as an unspeakable privilege. At 
either end of the sanctuary railing, a bend gives room 
for an altar. That on the north side is of marble in 
Gothic style, and is dedicated to the Sacred Heart, a 
gift of the League; the other, as yet of wood, is pa- 
troned by St. Aloysius. The entrance to the Sanctuary 
is by a large door on the south side, and in a recess 
beneath a window on the opposite side is an altar to 
the Holy Souls. With these facilities, as many as two 
dozen priests can say Mass in the Lower Church every 
morning. In the south transept there is room for the 
shrine of the Pieta, behind which are two stained glass 
windows containing two handsome figures, Our Lady 
and St. Joseph. On the opposite side is the shrine of 
St. Riita containing a large marble statue of the saint 
flanked by smaller statues of St. Vincent de Paul and 
St. Anthony of Padua. In the windows are two 



250 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

figures of St. Ignatius and St. Lawrence O'Toole, co- 
patrons of the church. All the other windows in the 
Lower Church have stained glass, but without figures. 

By November 15th, 1910, the improvements in the 
Lower Church were completed, and Masses were re- 
sumed on that day. For a time, no doubt, the enlarged 
church had not for many the feeling of coziness and 
devotion associated with the old place. The conserva- 
tive mind does not easily accommodate itself even to 
manifest improvements. The 9 o'clock Mass was 
restored on week days, beginning with Monday, No- 
vember 21st, and continued as at present during the 
school season. The improvements stimulated the 
generosity of the congregation, as is always the case, 
so that the Church Debt Collection on the First Sunday 
of Advent netted the sum of 5,100 dollars, the largest 
contribution up to that time. The Christmas collection, 
too, ran 400 dollars ahead of that of the previous year. 
In his annual statement Father Hearn proclaimed that 
the receipts surpassed the ordinary annual expenditures 
by 20,000 dollars, of which 15,000 dollars went for the 
renovation of the Lower Church and 5,000 dollars to 
meet the Cathedral tax. 

Meantime the Upper Church was not lost sight of. 
Plans were perfected after discussion, and adopted 
after mature deliberation. On March 12th, 1911, the 
following notice was read at all the Masses: "A 
colored sketch showing the plans for the completion 
of our church, with marble work, mosaic stations, and 
stained glass windows, has been placed in the north 
transept. Another mosaic station was given recently. 
Only a few stations remain to be donated, and two 



LAST TOUCHES 251 

grand mosaic panels back of the main altar. We hope 
that kind friends will soon appear as donors of these 
beautiful memorials." The interior color decorations, 
and most of the stained glass, are the work of Alex- 
ander S. Locke. They are a credit to his artistic taste, 
and are the more admired the longer they are studied. 
Without regard to chronology of inception or com- 
pletion of separate parts, as various parts were under 
different artistic workers at the same time, it is proper 
to detail the work undertaken at the inspiration and 
initiative of Father Hearn, backed by the donations of 
generous friends. 

Passing by the great doors of solid bronze, already 
mentioned, but constructed and placed in position at 
this time, we come to the vestibule, now enlarged by the 
transfer of the stairway that led to the organ-loft to 
the northern wall of the church and the northern end 
of the tribune beside the choir. Coming in from the 
glare of the street the coloring is restful to the eye and 
a preparation for the richness of the church within. 
The floor is of pink Tennessee marble which mercifully 
hides the stains of inclement weather. The panels are 
of Cipollino marble framed in Bottacina with insets of 
other rare marbles. The ceiling is arched, of plaster in 
heavy relief, the color of which is in keeping with the 
tones of the marble on the side walls. Gold is also 
used to bring out the special features of the ornamenta- 
tion. The general impression is that of bluish gray, 
rich yet subdued, a fitting introduction to the richer 
interior. 

In harmony with the frescoing of the ceiling with 
its rich, golden tone, Father Hearn had the walls up 



FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

to the capitals of the pilasters covered with rich mar- 
bles gathered from Europe and Africa. The base and 
pilasters were encrusted in Numidian with borders of 
yellow Sienna ; the doors and Stations of the Cross were 
surrounded with convent Sienna, a greyish marble 
which effectively broke the rich sameness of Numidian 
and yellow Sienna. The sides of the bays in the tran- 
septs were emphasized by panels of Sienna brecciata 
framed in Numidian. 

Within the sanctuary the color is still warmer than 
in the body of the church, a result of a judicious blend- 
ing of Numidian, yellow Sienna, pink Algerian and 
Convent Sienna. The longer one examines the com- 
bination, the more its beauty attracts the beholder. The 
last touch to the decoration of the sanctuary was the 
placing of two large statues of St. Francis Regis and 
St. Francis Xavier in front of the two large pilasters, 
the first on the epistle side, the second on the opposite 
or gospel side. 

After considerable thought had been given to the 
subject of the Stations of the Cross and inquiries made 
among firms competent to do such work in oil or 
mosaic, and prices of mosaics weighed, good fortune 
put Father Hearn in communication with the firm of 
Salviati and Company of Venice, famous for their 
artistic work and masters in mosaics. The desire to 
secure an order for a set of large stations in mosaic 
was so strong that Mr. Camerino posted qff to New 
York to secure the work if possible. Making himself 
thoroughly familiar with the space, the light and ideas 
to be reproduced, he made his bid and secured the con- 
tract. The work he had to do was entirely original 



LAST TOUCHES 253 

and entirely unusual. All the figures that recurred 
from station to station had to have the same raiment, 
the same features with changing expression and chang- 
ing postures. But the firm had in its employ an artist 
of renowned ability who undertook to carry out the 
ideas submitted to him. He made his first sketches 
and sent them over for examination and criticism, made 
the suggested corrections and, on final approval, pre- 
pared his work for the mosaic artists. They repro- 
duced, in colored-glass particles cemented together, the 
exact tints of the painter. The firm were so well 
pleased with their work that they asked permission to 
exhibit a specimen in Turin, where the government 
wanted a display of their productions. 

All were so well pleased with the stations sent over 
that an order for the three mosaics in the sanctuary 
was entrusted to the same firm. These were just 
finished when Mr. Paoletti, the designer, was carried 
off by death. Mr. Camerino writes: "Americans 
should know that you possess the most perfect and 
most imposing pictures which have been made in 
mosaic up to date. We are proud of them and thank- 
ful to those whose liberality made it possible for us to 
possess them." 

A donation of ten thousand dollars from a kind 
friend enabled Father Hearn to satisfy both his taste 
and his devotion, and to spread that same devotion 
among the youth of the parish. The Baptistery is 
decidedly the most striking and beautiful feature in 
the church. It both projects beyond the line of the 
building and encroaches on the floor space of the nave. 
It was desirable architecturally to balance this con- 



254 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

struction and at the same time to avoid forced orna- 
mentation. The space on the opposite side would 
serve as a site for an altar, and one peculiarly appro- 
priate for our church. There is an altar to the Saints 
of the Society, but an altar for the Patrons of Youth, 
Sts. Aloysius, John Berchmans and Stanislaus, would 
have its lesson for the youth of our parish that ought 
not to be lost, if the sermon could be preached in stone. 
The donation gave voice to the sermon of the altar of 
the Patrons of Youth. The altar is small like that of 
the Baptistery, but its surrounding ornamentation helps 
to correspond in color and in size with the Baptistery. 
It is surmounted by three statues of the purest Carrara 
marble, St. Aloysius holding the central position with 
St. John Berchmans at his right hand and St. Stanislaus 
at his left. The altar is enclosed within a rich marble 
railing with bronze doors heavily gilt. The back- 
ground is of rich Pavonazzo with Sienna borders and 
insets of red jasper. In color the whole shrine har- 
monizes well with the Baptistery without slavish imita- 
tion, but preserving its own individuality. This is well 
emphasized by the pilasters upholding the arch and the 
pillars fronting them. All have rich capitals of heavy 
gilt bronze, with similar bronze decorations on the 
flat surface of the pilasters. The two pillars uphold 
heavy bronze torches symbolizing the lessons which the 
Patrons of Youth convey to the youth of the world. 
When the grand organ by Hook and Hastings was 
first set up in 1898, it was constructed as usual across 
the choir gallery, with the effect of shutting off the 
light of the large central window in the east front of 
the edifice. The result was a serious lack of light by 



LAST TOUCHES 255 

day, and at all times a background of unequal resonance 
for the organ pipes. Father Hearn sought and found 
a remedy for both defects and added, too, one of the 
most pleasing decorations in the whole church. The 
organ pipes were divided and set up in curved lines 
on either side of the central window running back in 
a quarter circle to the sides of the choir walls. This 
left abundant room for singers, gave plenty of light, 
and the same resonance for all the pipes. A console 
in the forepart of the choir enabled the organist to keep 
the singers in view at all times, and to observe the 
motions of the choir-master. 

When it was deemed advisable to place the Boy 
Choir within the sanctuary, a similar console was 
erected in front of the Sacred Heart altar, and electric 
connection was made from the keyboard to the organ 
in the gallery. This space was shut in by a bronze 
grill from which hangs a light veil to remove distrac- 
tion, as well from the congregation on the outside as 
from the choristers within. The problem of separating 
the singers so far from the organ is a difficult one to 
solve, and it does not seem that a perfect solution has 
yet been found. The singers might revert to the organ 
loft, but liturgically they belong to the sanctuary. 

The uncovering of the large east window called for 
a decorative effect, and the decoration has been made. 
A large stained-glass representation of the Resurrection 
was chosen to give the last touch to the ornamentation 
of our church. The dominating figure is that of our 
Lord clad in oriental robes rising calm, beautiful, 
triumphant from the dead, diffusing light that is strong, 
but not blinding, from His "Spiritual body." An angel 



256 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

to His right, but lower and on a smaller scale, holds 
a triumphal palm in his hand with a look of calm power 
and joy on his features. The soldiers of the temple 
in robes of barbaric splendor, so different from the 
severely simple garments of the Roman soldier, give 
the artist an opportunity for displaying his powers 
of combining colors cunningly and with taste. The 
morning sun brings out wonderful effects in red, pur- 
ple, blue, green and yellow with ivory and white in 
such a way that one shades off into another without 
any garish effect. It is a beautiful monument of affec- 
tion from a Sister to a Brother. 

The need of a Parish House had been long felt, 
especially since the absorption of the old Parish Hall 
and Library by the Lower Church, or indeed since the 
tearing down of the old school. The Library was 
shifted from the old school to the space now given up 
to the Lower Sacristy, was in danger of total disap- 
pearance when moved thence, and when a new home 
was provided, it reappeared in diminished proportions. 
After the purchase for Loyola School of the seven 
houses west of the school, Father Hearn devoted two 
of them, Nos. 51 and 53 East Eighty-Third Street, for 
parish purposes. The Library found a home once more : 
religious books and other religious articles are kept for 
sale to the great convenience of the parishioners; for 
a simple pair of scapulars becomes expensive if it has 
to be purchased down in Barclay Street, even for five 
cents. There is a reading room, a meeting room for 
small bodies of officers, as consultors of sodalities, who 
would feel lost in the Parish Hall. The Boys' Choir 
may here meet for play, recreation or rehearsal. An 



LAST TOUCHES 257 

ordinary dwelling house needs many changes to fit it 
for a Parish House, hence a collection was announced 
for June 9th, 1912, and brought in six hundred dollars 
lacking forty cents. The Ladies' Sodality held a fair 
in the courtyard for the same purpose in the same 
month. Furniture was needed and was provided from 
contributions placed in boxes in the Lower Church in 
February, 1913. In that month that same year the 
house was opened on the 16th day. 

The last members of former staffs employed in this 
parish to be called to their eternal home are Fathers 
Gannon and Singleton. The former spent two years 
at separate intervals in St. Ignatius Church in 1907-8 
and in 1913-14. He was born in Boston, March 31st, 
1859, and made his early classical studies in Boston 
College. In 1876 he was admitted to the Novitiate in 
Frederick City, Md., on the 5th of August. After two 
full years of noviceship and two more for classical and 
English studies, he went to Woodstock for three years 
of philosophy. Having completed the usual period of 
teaching, he returned to Woodstock to study theology 
and prepare for ordination. This took place in 1891. 

After finishing his course of theology he was made 
Prefect of Discipline in the fast-growing College of 
Holy Cross, Worcester, and at the opening of the 
school year in 1893 he spent his period of Tertianship 
in Montreal. In the next five years he was called 
upon to do a considerable amount of preaching, and 
its character marked him out for the Missionary Band 
for which his robust health well fitted him. He was 
assigned to this strenuous work for four years, the 
last one as Superior. On the 30th of July, 1903, he 



258 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

was appointed Rector of Boston College and held that 
important post until January 6th, 1907. From Boston 
he came to Yorkville and in 1908 he was transferred 
to St. Aloysius Church in Washington. There he 
spent five years before returning to St. Ignatius for 
another year. The last days of his life he passed at 
the Gesu in Philadelphia as a worker in the parish. 
He was an earnest preacher, solid rather than brilliant, 
and prepared his disccurses carefully, as he attached 
much importance to the duty of preaching. He was 
carried off suddenly while still in the vigor of life, 
October 30th, 1916. 

Father William S. Singleton, a contribution of St. 
Lawrence's parish to the Society, was the only one so 
contributed who was ever stationed here. He was 
born in New York City on November 25th, 1865. He 
was a student of St. Francis Xavier's up to his recep- 
tion into the Society on August 14th, 1883. He made 
his two years novitiate at West Park on the Hudson, 
and his juniorate or review of studies in Frederick, 
Md., for the space of two years more. According to 
the usual course he spent the next three years in the 
study of philosophy in the Scholasticate at Woodstock. 
After five years of regency as a Scholastic he was ready 
for his course of theology, which he commenced in 
September, 1895. In the summer of 1898 he was 
raised to the priesthood and continued his studies for 
one year more. Having completed his theological 
course he retired to Florissant, Missouri, for his final 
formation in the spiritual life in the Third Probation. 

After this experience he was engaged for one year 
in teaching the Junior Scholastics, for two years in 



LAST TOUCHES 259 

Boston College and one in Baltimore. In August, 
1904, he was transferred to St. Joseph's College in 
Philadelphia, where he remained to the end of his days 
save for the year he passed as Minister in our residence 
of St. Ignatius. While teaching or directing the studies 
in St. Joseph's College he made himself useful to the 
deaf and dumb in the city and surroundings. During 
his stay in Frederick, Md., like many others, he became 
familiar with the sign language in the Asylum there, 
and afterwards turned his skill and knowledge to good 
account. His genial, kindly nature and winning smile 
made the afflicted deaf and dumb feel at ease and docile 
to the Father's instructions. Pneumonia, contracted 
in a cold train while returning to Philadelphia from 
New York, carried him off on December 20th, 1915. 
The rise and progress of St. Lawrence's and St. 
Ignatius' Church and parish from the dance hall on 
Eighty-Sixth Street and Park Avenue, and the un- 
plastered wooden hut at 46 East Eighty-Fourth Street, 
have been sketched, however imperfectly, up to the 
completion of the beautiful temple of God on Eighty- 
Fourth Street and Park Avenue, from the shacks and 
shanties of the 'fifties and the two-storied homes of the 
well-to-do of the 'sixties about a straggling village, to 
the thirteen-storied apartment houses with their five 
thousand dollar suites bordering on the richest and 
most fashionable street in the United States, if not in 
the world. It is a story of wonderful evolution, of 
singular devotedness on the part of clergy and laity to 
give a home in their midst to the Eucharistic God ac- 
cording to their means. It may be that the first home 
is more endeared to the elders, from its association with 



260 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

their first religious memories, than is the new temple 
either to young or old. But the Guest for Whom both 
churches were constructed is the same, and is as willing 
to dispense His gifts (if not more so) from the new 
temple as from the old shrine. Neither abode is worthy 
of Him, but both excel His first dwelling in the stable 
of Bethlehem. As he welcomed the poor and the rich, 
the shepherds and the kings, to His first home ; so He 
invites all, the poor and the rich, the young and the 
old, to His temple in Yorkville, anxious to pour out on 
them His abundant blessings. "I came that they may 
have life and have it abundantly," His own eternal life 
which He had with His Father before the beginning of 
the world. He invites all that He may bless and assist 
all. "Come to me all you who labor and are heavily 
burdened and I will refresh you." 

The invitation thus generally extended has been ac- 
cepted lovingly and gratefully in St. Ignatius' parish. 
What marvels God effects in the soul, none but God can 
know; what the various gifts are which are bestowed 
on different individuals, and their relative value in pro- 
ducing the likeness of God, we may be privileged to see 
in the next life ; but we cannot know or estimate them 
here. However, there are not wanting some indica- 
tions which go to show cooperation with the sweet 
attractions of God. From the three Masses said on 
Sunday in 1866, the number has grown to nine at the 
present time, and even to ten on one Sunday of the 
month. And these Masses are not said between empty 
walls or before untenanted pews, but most of them 
before a dense congregation who attentively listen to 
instruction or a sermon given at each Mass. On week 




Father II earn 



LAST TOUCHES 261 

days there are seven Masses, each attended by a fair 
number of worshipers, especially in the cool months 
and particularly in Lent and the month of May. 

The invitation to frequent and daily Communion 
issued by the saintly Pope Pius X, has found a 
response in our church second to few in the Catholic 
world. It is not easy to speak with certainty about 
the great centres of devotion throughout the world, 
yet it has been said that the parish of St. Ignatius and 
St. Lawrence stands third in the list of communicants. 
Last year, or from July 1st, 1915, to July 1st, 1916, 
the number of Communions credited to our community 
was over 309,000, a gratifying total whether third in 
the world or thirtieth, and a strong proof of Christian 
vitality. The account to follow will confirm this 
conclusion. 

Father McKinnon built the house of the Lord and 
Father Hearn furnished the beauty thereof. As the 
former constructed a beautiful school for the parish 
the latter erected a High School for the city and, of 
course, for Yorkville. To these two pastors the parish 
owes most. When the Day Nursery was opened and 
endowment secured, there was but little that Father 
Hearn could add. He had done more than any of his 
predecessors. With health already impaired he was 
sent for lighter work and responsibility to Canisius 
College in Buffalo. His monuments here will long 
testify to his zeal, taste, efficiency and popularity. 



CHAPTER XX. 
Finance. 

The story of St. Lawrence and St. Ignatius parish 
in Yorkville has been woven, in the main, about the 
construction of the churches and the efforts of the 
various pastors from 1851 to 1916. But much re- 
mained to be said that could not so easily be entwined 
about that story without spoiling the unity of the narra- 
tive; and since the work began, some additional facts 
have come to light which were not available when the 
earlier chapters were written. This information is 
gathered here under the various headings to which it 
belongs, and will serve to show the progress made in 
Finance, Education, Charitable work and Spiritual 
growth, with the fruits in Vocations. 

When Thomas Lennon and his companions went to 
Archbishop Hughes with the deeds of four lots on 
Eighty-Fourth Street, one hundred feet west of Fourth 
Avenue, they thought that their problem was solved 
and difficulties were at an end. Unfortunately their 
difficulties were just beginning and lasted to the end 
of their days. All were enthusiastic for the building 
of a church near their homes, and all promised to con- 
tribute generously according to their means; but their 
means were limited, or non-existent, and promised 
contributions were never paid. Mr. Lennon advanced 
money from his own pocket to make up the thousand 

2«2 



FINANCE 263 

dollars for the ground, though he had paid in one 
hundred dollars as his share. Moreover, he had to 
pay for the alterations necessary for the celebration 
of Mass in the dance-hall on Eighty-Sixth Street and 
Fourth Avenue, and the rent from August 7th to 
January 1st, 1852. There does not seem to have been 
any organization in the parish the first year, and a 
stranger and an invalid was an unlikely man to set 
one on foot. When a Building Committee was or- 
ganized on November 28th, 1852, by Father Quarter, 
Mr. Lennon put in his claim for all expenses incurred 
up to March 15th, when he paid 54 dollars on a barge of 
bricks. It amounted to $438.65. Even the richest 
man of Yorkville could not afford to give so much, 
and he justly thought it proper to distribute the burden 
among the congregation. The growing charges for the 
hall, 12 dollars in August, 25 dollars in September and 
October and 30 dollars for November and December, 
made the occupation of the temporary church a neces- 
sity. Evidently there was no collection taken up at 
the first Mass in the parish on August 10th, 1851, but 
Mr. Lennon was too much of a business man to neglect 
such a function; so on Saturday, August 16th, 1851, 
he expended twenty-five cents for the purchase of col- 
lection plates and charged the same to the parish amid 
bills for carpentry 40 dollars, and lumber $49.96 and 
cathechisms for the children $3.75 to Sadlier. We hope 
the bill was paid, as the parish was much indebted to 
him. The church accounts which have come down to 
us do not go back as far as the 15th of March, 1852. 
But certainly Father Quarter would not see him bur- 
dened beyond his share, nor would the Committee com- 



264 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

posed of his friends and neighbors and customers be 
willing to impose on his liberality. He certainly was 
paid for some of his claim as appears from the books. 

The Building Committee, which was in reality a com- 
mittee on finance, and was composed of Rev. Walter 
J. Quarter, chairman, Messrs. Lennon, Thute, Murphy, 
Gallagher, McCarthy and Twomey, held its first meet- 
ing on November 28th, 1852. The name indicated the 
object of the Committee. The members were yet 
untried, and were ambitious to erect a church such as 
each one could be proud of, but they had also to find 
the means. That duty sobered them, and they fell from 
a 2 1.000 dollar church to one costing the more modest 
sum of 15,000 dollars. Plans had to be modified to suit 
their hopes and the purses of the parish. Bricks, lum- 
ber and lime purchased before the birth of the Com- 
mittee, and resting on the premises, were a source of 
discord. The bids, contrary to stipulation and expecta- 
tion, took no account of the material on hand, and 
wrangling ensued. Finally the bids of Messrs. Ber- 
rien and McAuliffe for masonry and carpenter work 
were accepted, and after a few alterations in the plans, 
exterior and interior, were made, the construction of the 
building was hurried to a conclusion. The low price and 
the hurry resulted in poor workmanship, and repairs 
were imperative in a short time. 

They were a brave body of men and largely endowed 
with faith and hope. They had a temporary church 
with seventy pews, not all of which were let, or could 
be let, even at the moderate rent of those days. The 
first pews brought in the modest sum of one dollar a 
month or 12 dollars a year, others brought 10 or 9 or 



FINANCE 265 

8 dollars a year. The collection were on the same 
primitive scale. During the first month of Father 
Quarter's incumbency, October. 1852, the three col- 
lections actually taken up netted but $15.05. Slowly and 
laboriously they climbed until they averaged about nine 
dollars a Sunday after a year. The three corresponding 
collections in the month of October, 1863, twelve years 
later and two months before Father Quarter's death 
reached the sum of $22.60 a week. Of course, with 
such limited revenues, it would be impossible to erect 
a church, run it and pay a salary to the pastor. The 
Building Committee must beg, borrow or steal, in order 
to succeed in their pious design. Stealing being incom- 
patible with their profession, they had to fall back on 
the more churchly expedients of borrowing and beg- 
ging. Eight thousand dollars were borrowed on Octo- 
ber 21st, 1853, from the Immigrant Industrial Savings 
Bank, and his grace the Archbishop lent one thousand 
dollars to be paid when called for. The call does not 
seem to have been made as yet. In begging, Father 
Quarter was most successful, and after him came Fath- 
er Conroy, late of Newark, and temporary assistant, 
that is as long as the parish could support him. Father 
Quarter collected from friends, former subjects and 
from laborers in the Park. The Committee, looking up- 
on the territory between Sixty-Fifth Street and One 
Hundreth, between Fifth Avenue and the Hudson as a 
No Man's Land, raked the country clean, and gathered 
in all the spare coin in possession of the few stray 
Catholics settled or employed there. The whole terri- 
tory around Yorkville was divided into seventeen col- 
lection districts with a collector for each. The first 



266 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

extended from One Hundredth to Eighty-Sixth Street 
between Third Avenue and East River. Mr. Lennon, 
the collector, covered much ground, though he may 
not have uncovered much money. However, his de- 
livery wagon made the work lighter for him than it 
would be for one who was not engaged in selling bread, 
or in delivering some such necessary commodity. The 
second district lay between Eighty-Sixth and Eighty- 
Fourth Streets with the above eastern and western 
boundaries. Patrick Ware, the collector, had an easy 
time, as he might ignore the region east of Second 
Avenue without much pecuniary loss to the church. 
No canvass of the region below Seventy-First Street 
was made as there were then no residents there. The 
seventh district embraced the space between Eighty- 
Fourth and Eighty-Third Streets from Third to Sixth 
Avenues. Stephen Flanagan, the collector, was better 
off even than Patrick Ware, as he covered less ground 
and probably took in more money. The seventeenth 
district extended from Tenth Avenue to the Hudson 
between Eighty-Sixth Street and the parish limit at 
One Hundredth Street. The unfortunate collector, 
Patrick McGann, who may have been a settler there, 
probably saw more rabbits than dimes on his rounds. 
These collectors brought in small sums, which helped 
to swell the richer contributions secured by the clergy. 
Subscriptions were solicited in church, and payments 
on these made according to the donors' means. At one 
of the meetings, Mr. Lennon paid his entire subscrip- 
tion of fifty dollars. Some ladies joined in the good 
work, and are credited in the treasurer's accounts with 
small sums. An excursion on the 10th of August, the 



FINANCE 267 

second anniversary of the foundation of the parish, net- 
ted about 450 dollars. All these means of raising 
money, added to the regular receipts, enabled the parish 
to exist. The treasurer, Mr. Denis McCarthy, found 
many months when his books would not balance, when 
there was a deficit, which he made up from his own 
pocket. Mr. John Falvey, Jr., his successor after Jan- 
uary, 1856, had similar experiences. The parish was 
indebted to him over and over again, but he seemed 
willing to extend credit, no matter how dark the pros- 
pects were. And dark indeed they were when the 
Committee had to withdraw the salary of the assistant, 
Father Conroy, after about two years. However, fifty 
dollars a month was given to Father Quarter when- 
ever there was anything to give, a very respectable sum 
in those days. Very often a good percentage of the 
salary found its way back as a gift to the Church 
Treasury. Things kept on improving up to 1857, 
when trouble began anew. The Building Committee 
were ambitious to put up a house for the pastor, who 
up to that time, had been living either on Eighty-Third 
Street near Fourth Avenue, or on the corner of Eighty- 
Fourth Street and Third Avenue, whence he had to fly 
before a fire, or on Eighty-Sixth Street near the present 
Madison Avenue. The rents, which kept on mounting 
with each change, would total more than the interest 
on the cost of a rectory, and as a matter of economy as 
well as for privacy, a house must be built for the pastor 
and for an assistant, if one could be supported. Sound- 
ings were taken, and a sum of 700 dollars was promised. 
With this slender hope the work was undertaken and a 
home was secured, a priest's house belonging to the 



268 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

priest and to the parish. The reverence of the Com- 
mittee and of the parishioners for Father Quarter was 
satisfied. 

With the completion of the priest's house there was 
no further mission for the Building Committee as such, 
and so their records cease. The first meeting was held 
on November 28th, 1852, and the last minutes we have 
record the result of a meeting on September 20th, 
1857. The President of the Committee was Father 
Quarter, who was usually present. The Chairman was 
Thomas Lennon, as long as he lasted, and a faithful 
and useful member. After his death (which the 
minutes do not state) the President occupied the chair. 
Mr. Denis McCarthy was Treasurer to the end, and 
Mr. F. J. Twomey, the most faithful member, was 
Secretary. At the first meeting, besides the above- 
mentioned, there were present Mr. Thute, who did not 
continue long. Mr. Murphy, Mr. Gallagher and at the 
pastor's request, Mr. Thomas Hogan was added to the 
charter members. He was an active and valuable 
worker. The bids for the erection of the church in- 
clude Mr. P. Brennan, among the Committee. He is 
mentioned in the minutes of January 9th, 1853, and 
was assigned the sixteenth collection district from 
Tenth Avenue to the Hudson, from Seventy-Ninth to 
Eighty-Sixth Street. In the July meeting the name of 
Mr. Falvey appears for the first time and continues 
regularly to the end. Later we come across R. W. 
Roby, Dr. Hassell, Mr. Callaghan, W. Roby. Judge 
Pearson, Mr. Geary and Mr. Glynn. 

At the August meeting we find the members divided 
into sub-committees as follows: A Committee on 



FINANCE 269 

Finance, F. J. Twomey, Dr. Hassell, John Falvey, Jr. ; 
Committee on Accounts, Denis McCarthy, James Gal- 
lagher and Thomas Pearson; Committee on (Renting) 
Pews, Lawrence Glynn, John Geary and J. Twomey ; 
Committee on Repairs and Supplies, Patrick Brennan, 
John Callaghan and John Falvey, Sr. Before the dis- 
solution the number was reduced to ten by a resignation 
and a death. The meetings first took place at the home 
of Mr. Lennon, next in the house of the pastor, and 
finally in the school-house. 

The gradual improvement that took place in the 
financial condition of the church from growing popu- 
lation, increased collections, and a higher charge for 
pews, was maintained after the death of Father Quar- 
ter. Though Father Mulledy was not a money seeker, 
or a money getter, the money came in faster than in 
the days of his energetic and popular predecessor. 
There were no extraordinary expenses incurred such 
as crowded the incumbency of Father Quarter, i. e., 
construction of church, alteration of old church for 
school purposes, construction of rectory and little 
vestry, purchase of a house and lot for Sisters of 
Charity, and alteration of building for use as a school. 
Father Mulledy could settle down in peace, and let 
things grow while his able treasurer watched over, and 
clearly accounted annually for all receipts and expendi- 
tures. The Treasurer, Mr. John Falvey, Jr., was ably- 
assisted by the Secretary, Mr. Twomey. Their report 
for the year 1863, which has been preserved, is a model 
of clearness and neatness, and shows an almost un- 
broken financial progress. Still the balance in the 
church treasury of $339.43. after twelve years, showed 



270 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

the need of conservatism in spending. Pastor and 
Assistant, organist and teachers of the school, with 
coal bills, consumed more than the ordinary receipts. 
Hence lectures, picnics, excursions, fairs, all were 
utilized to provide the extra sums needed. On Father 
Mulledy's arrival in the parish he was waited on by a 
committee inviting him to deliver a lecture in aid of 
the poor children of the parish. The lecture was de- 
livered by one of the foremost students of the Roman 
College in the first half of the nineteenth century, yet 
the receipts do not seem to have gone beyond one hun- 
dred dollars. 

When the Jesuits came to Yorkville, the number of 
Masses was increased, and their salaries seem to have 
been given to the church, to the manifest benefit of the 
financial condition. Contributions were solicited for 
the erection of a much-needed new school. So, as has 
always happened in the history of the parish, when the 
congregation saw any construction going on, they be- 
came more liberal with their contributions. Of course, 
money had to be borrowed — fifteen thousand dollars — 
which, added to the mortgage on the property incurred 
by Father Quarter, amounting to over 16,000 dollars, 
increased the burden. But increasing contributions 
from increasing population enabled the Fathers to meet 
all expenses and diminish the debt. 

Father Moylan, the first independent pastor, in his 
two years was able to cut off 20,000 dollars of the in- 
debtedness. This it was possible to do because of an 
appropriation from the State of 5,000 dollars for the 
school on June 27th, 1868, and an equal sum from the 
City for the same purpose on November 22nd, 1869, 



FINANCE 271 

with 4,500 dollars from the same source on August 
11th, 1870, and 203 dollars from Albany. 

A mission given by the great Father Damen, S. J., 
of Chicago, with the proceeds of two lectures and 
church collections and contributions swelled his receipts 
to almost two thousand dollars. 

When Father Gockeln entered office in 1871, he 
found largely increased revenues from pews and col- 
lections, the latter sometimes reaching over one hundred 
dollars a week, with extraordinary collections mounting 
to over five hundred dollars for the orphans, and to 
over six hundred dollars for the destitute victims 
of the great Chicago fire. On the other hand the 
appropriations for our school ceased with a contri- 
bution of $3,639,21 in 1871. Five Sisters of Charity 
and two lay teachers drew salaries every month. A 
great source of expenses, owing to interest and taxes, 
was the purchase of several lots on Second Avenue and 
Eighty-Fifth Street. It continued to eat into the 
church receipts until sold by Father Treanor. The 
extraordinary sources of revenue during this adminis- 
tration were magic lantern illustrations of views of 
Jerusalem and of Irish scenes. The Panoramas, as they 
were called, brought in on an average 1,000 dollars. 
A fair in December, 1872, netted 6,500 dollars. The 
building of the New Cathedral demanded considerable 
sums from this, as well as from other churches, amount- 
ing in one case to 1,000 dollars. By good management 
Father Gockeln was able to pay off nearly 26,000 dol- 
lars, an amount almost five times the total receipts of 
the church in the first days of Father Mulledy ten years 
earlier. Yorkville was growing with a vengeance. 



278 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Without making any extraordinary effort and resort- 
ing to no extraneous means of raising revenue, but 
satisfied with the pew rents and collections, Father 
Achard paid off 3,000 dollars from the debt, and left to 
his successor 05,000 dollars to meet. It was bravely met 
and overcome, and a surplus left in bank for construc- 
tion when his lamentable death occurred. A monster 
fair brought him in $16,611.35, which enabled him to 
cancel at once 15,500 dollars of his indebtedness. The 
fortunate sale of the property on Second Avenue for 
40,000 dollars diminished the debt by so much, and put 
an end to the heart-breaking outgo for taxes and in- 
terest. A Church Debt Association which he established 
after the example of a classmate brought in consider- 
able revenue, and his own large-hearted and magnetic 
character helped to swell the receipts. During this peri- 
od we meet with a legacy for the first time. Mr. Bar- 
tholomeo Blanco left 500 dollars in his will for St. 
Lawrence's Church, which sum was paid on July 13th, 
a lucky day, though it was a Saturday, not a Friday. 
The sum was not large, but it was an auspicious be- 
ginning. It was paid over in July, 1878, and was 
followed on January 21st of the next year by a legacy 
of $1,424.65 from Mary Conlon for poor children of 
the parish. The payment of 59,000 dollars of debt in 
one year relieved the church from an oppressive burden 
and the pastor from anxiety for the future. A new 
period was setting in for good. 

The first of many rich donations made to the church 
is recorded in the announcement book under date of 
January 23rd, 1881. There thanks are expressed to 
Mr. James Keene for a contribution of 5,000 dollars. 



FINANCE 273 

This seems to be a response to the address of Father 
Fulton to the pew-holders at a special meeting held on 
January 16th. People were impatient to see Father 
Treanor's plans for building carried out at once; but 
as the treasury contained but a small fraction of the 
required sum, the pastor had to wait for the necessary 
means. Since then many and generous contributions 
have been made for the erection and adornment of 
God's house and for the school, second in importance 
to the church only; and, though the giver of a widow's 
mite may be as liberal in the eyes of God and as deserv- 
ing of a reward as the donor of a thousand, it is proper 
that some recognition should be given to those who 
have notably assisted the parish. It would look like 
a page of a directory to set down all contributors, 
even could their names be secured; and could they be 
secured, no one would care to read the list. Hence 
mention will be made of those only whose donations 
reach four figures. Inscriptions in the church will 
record the names of contributors to special ornamenta- 
tion. Honora Burns, legacy; Miss Eleanora Beaty, 
legacy; Miss Sarah Mallon, legacy; Miss Bridget 
McGough; Mr. E. Eyre, 1905-7; Mrs. William 
Schickel, Mr. James D. Murphy, Mr. James Crowley, 
Amelia Weir, Hon. W. Bourke Cockran, Mr. Cornelius 
T. Cronin, Members of the League of the Sacred Heart. 
Miss McKenna (Sister Maria Concepta) ; Mrs. Crow- 
ley, The Misses King, Mrs. Bruce- Webster, Mrs. John 
Giraud Agar, Sanctuary lamp; Mr. Paul G. Thebaud, 
pulpit; Mrs. William Ray, Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady, 
Mrs. Breslin and sister, Miss Lalor; Annie Countess 
Leary, Mr. James Higgins, Mr. John McGlynn, Mr. 



274 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

James C. Brady, Mr. Edmund J. Curry, Mr. John D. 
Ryan, Mrs. Margaret Egan, Captain John Fleming's 
estate, Miss Bridget Conway, Mr. Daniel C. Stapleton, 
and some other generous donors who wish their bene- 
factions to be known to God alone. 

How instructive the above list is when compared 
with the first donation of two dollars from Mr. Joseph 
Murray, recorded among the church receipts under date 
of November 7th, 1852, and with the princely gift of 
twenty-five dollars contributed by Father Quarter on 
the 14th of the same month! And what a long list 
might be drawn up of contributors of one hundred dol- 
lars, or more, who for want of space must be omitted. 
Yet the early givers were relatively as generous as the 
later. The change of times is exemplified by the case 
of the blacksmith, Kilpatrick, who wanted ground about 
Lexington Avenue and Eighty-Fifth Street for a dwell- 
ing. He paced off the extent required, was told to take 
more, to take the entire lot, as the price would be the 
same. He took the part he wanted, paid the price of 
the whole and built his house. The portion was later 
sold for 17,000 dollars. Men of the 'fifties might take 
a present of a lot on Fifth Avenue hereabout, but would 
scarcely be willing to pay a price for it. It was out of 
town, too far away from Third Avenue and Eighty- 
Sixth Street. Another side-light on the difference in 
times is thrown on our minds by the complaint made in 
the announcement book for February 22nd, 1874, 
against those who contribute coppers and postage 
stamps in the collection for the poor. 




Temporary Church and First School 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Education. 

The facilities for education in this territory were 
extremely limited at the time our parish came into 
existence. A public school, dating back some decades 
and serving the youth not only of Yorkville, but also 
of Harlem and Astoria, occupied a site on the line of 
Madison Avenue between Eighty-Sixth and Eighty- 
Seventh Streets. A ward school for primary grades 
was located on the north side of Eighty-Fourth Street 
about one hundred feet to the east of Fourth Avenue. 
One of the teachers certainly, probably both, professed 
the Catholic fajth. As soon as the new church was 
completed and occupied for divine worship, the old 
wooden one was changed into a school. The walls 
were plastered, perhaps for the first time, at an expense 
of fifty-one dollars, and whitewashed for twelve dollars, 
in the month of June. According to a note in the hand- 
writing of Father Quarter, the school was opened on the 
1st of August, 1854, under lay teachers at the beginning 
and later under the Sisters of Charity. There is no rec- 
ord of any money having been paid to the teachers at 
the time. The Sisters came on November 4th, 1854, to 
open a select school for girls, the parent of St. Law- 
rence's Academy. Father Quarter, like his brother, the 
Bishop, had known the Sisters at Emmitsburg and had 
learned to appreciate their worth when pastor at Utica 
and assistant on Grand Street. So, as soon as he found 

275 



276 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKYILLE 

himself free from the care of building he turned im- 
mediately to the important field of education. The 
motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of the New York 
foundation, the old Mount St. Vincent, lay within his 
parochial territory at McGowan's Pass, about One 
Hundred and Seventh Street and Sixth Avenue. A 
path led across country from near the church door to 
the Pass. At the time there was not much liberty of 
choice in teaching orders, and if there had been, it is 
probable that Father Quarter would have selected those 
at his door in preference to any other community. The 
Sisters were poor. Father Quarter was poor, the people 
were poor. How could he find means amid a strug- 
gling congregation to support a little community of 
rs ? Though short in cash the pastor was long in 
faith and trust in the Providence of God. The Sisters, 
too, by tradition and by sharp experience, were accus- 
tomed to simple fare and hard work. They would be 
able to live where men would starve, and would be just 
as cheerful as if they possessed a rich endowment. 
With strong faith, high hopes and bright faces, three 
Sisters. Domitilla, Sister Servant, Benedicta and 
Ignatia (so the record runs in the familiar hand of 
Father Quarter) came over to found a mission in St. 
Lawrence's Parish, and took up their abode in the house 
yet standing and numbered 73 East Eighty-Sixth 
Street. The foundation took place on the 4th of No- 
vember, 1854. In the preceding month a collection 
was taken up for them in the church to pay for the 
installment. They were rich to the extent of $56.02 at 
the start. A lecture by Dr. Manahan brought in 
50 dollars more, and thereafter the church paid their 



EDUCATION 277 

rent of 300 dollars a year while they remained in their 
first home. Tuition fees and music lessons served to 
provide bread and butter, or bread without butter, as 
the case might be. On December 4th. just a month 
after their installation, they began to teach the classes 
in our first school, the old church divided into a front 
and rear room. Before taking charge of the school the 
Sisters had begun to teach catechism in the church, so 
that they were not strangers to the children. "When- 
ever they could find some spare moments, they visited 
the miserable hovels on the 'rocks' in the vicinity, where 
they found many a sad case of suffering and want/' 

The apostolic spirit of Sister Domitilla could not rest 
contented with relieving and consoling the cases of 
wretchedness encountered among the "rocks." She 
sought out greater depths of misery and degradation 
on Blackwell's Island which she frequently visited with 
a little girl as her companion. In 1857, another field 
was chosen for Sister Domitilla. and Sister Frances 
Borgia took her place ; but, the work proving too much 
for her, Sister Domitilla was recalled to Yorkville to 
preside again over the little community. As there was 
some complaint against the site or surroundings of the 
house, the nuns removed in 1857 to a residence on 
Eighty-Seventh Street near Fifth Avenue. The rent 
was higher, but the church continued to pay the in- 
creased sum of 400 dollars. After a stay of three years 
on Eighty-Seventh Street, an effort was made to bring 
the Sisters nearer to the school and to the church. 
Collections were taken up. and donations, always 
headed by Father Quarter and generously seconded 

a Sister Edana's Notes. 



278 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

by Mr. Crimmins, were received for the purchase and 
fitting up of a suitable convent beside the school on 
the present site of the Academy. While the Select 
School enjoyed a kind of roving commission to educate 
and refine the upper ten of Yorkville, mostly girls, the 
parish school, mostly boys, continued to grow with 
the growth of the neighborhood, and this was rapid 
enough as the 'sixties advance. The construction of 
the reservoir brought many men, of whom some were 
heads of families, to swell the congregation and to 
swell the school. Sister Domitilla continued in office 
here as head of the school until the establishment of 
the Protectory in 1863. 

From 1863 to 1870 Sister Anastasia directed the 
growth of the school, and the growth was a notable 
one in building and in attendance. As soon as the 
Jesuits got settled down in the parish and understood 
its needs, their first care was to provide a more suitable 
school house. The building was unfit except as a make- 
shift, the classes were too few and were a distraction 
one to the other. In the fall of 1866, the Fathers 
began to call on the congregation for aid to construct 
a proper edifice for the children under their care, and 
the many more who ought to be under their care. The 
house was erected on the site of the old one, and con- 
sequently during the course of construction teaching 
had to be suspended. Within a year the new school 
was up, and its appearance, contrasted with the old 
shed, exercised an attractive influence on children and 
parents alike, to the numerical increase of the pupils. 
State aid was allowed at the time where equipment and 
teaching were satisfactory. It was an immense relief 



EDUCATION 279 

to the parish to be freed from the burden of supporting 
the school and paying the interest on the school build- 
ing, as well as meeting the interest of the debt still due 
on the church. One of the Fathers was principal of 
the school, and was accountable for its management, 
and drew the modest salary of fifty dollars a month 
while the appropriation lasted. 

In 1870, Sister Rosina (later the Superior General 
of the community) succeeded Sister Anastasia at St. 
Lawrence's Academy. She was instrumental in secur- 
ing in 1871 a house to the west of the convent, No. 42, 
as an addition to the Academy. She was called to the 
wider field of Mount St. Vincent and the government 
of the whole community in 1874. During her incum- 
bency the parish school had grown so much that ad- 
ditional teachers had to be engaged. As the Sisters 
of Charity could not furnish them, lay teachers had to 
be employed, and have been continued ever since then, 
though many more Sisters have been added. The first 
appearance of the children at an entertainment pro- 
duced such an impression on the public that persons 
unacquainted with the school could hardly be persuaded 
that they were not Academy girls. The early reputa- 
tion has kept on growing with advancing years, as the 
parish can testify. The charge of Sisters in our school 
as well as of those in the Academy was placed on the 
shoulders of Sister Sebastian in 1874. As the school 
grew, so did the Academy in her day and under the 
administration of Father Achard ; for they entered into 
office and retired from it at the same time. Sister 
Teresa Josephine was Sister Sebastian's successor, and 
remained in office until her death in 1887. She had 



280 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

under consideration at the time of her decease plans 
for a new Convent. For both the community and the 
pupils were on the increase, and as times were on the 
mend after the panic of 1873, contributions might be 
expected to flow in more rapidly and more abundantly 
after the lean years of stringency. What death pre- 
vented Sister Teresa from doing was effected by Sister 
Mary Reine. She left behind her the present structure, 
and crowned her administration when she had the 
Academy incorporated in Albany under the Regents 
as a High School in 1898. 

Two attempts had been made between 1870 and 1880 
to begin High School classes in connection with the 
parochial school, but the time was not yet ripe and the 
project fell through. The study of Latin was dis- 
tasteful, apparently, to the boys, and the payment of 
tuition, however small the amount, was sure to be 
obnoxious to the majority of parents. This was made 
evident when it was sought to get a small fee from 
parents who were able to contribute for tuition in the 
parish school. After the withdrawal of the appropria- 
tions made by the State and city, and the increase of 
the pupils demanding an increase in the number of 
teachers, the support of the school became a consider- 
able drain on the revenues of the parish. To meet the 
growing expenses a bill was sent to all the parents for 
contributions, and was expected to be returned, with 
or without a tuition fee. The poor were not expected 
to give anything, and were so informed ; yet their feel- 
ings were spared, as all were billed alike. As the 
financial results were unsatisfactory, not worth the time 
and the trouble expended, the practice was dropped. 



EDUCATION 281 

From 1879 on, when the efforts of Father Treanor 
and the cooperation of the parish (won over by his 
magnetism and zeal) removed the monetary strain on 
the parish, paid off the debt and left a neat sum in 
bank, there was no more difficulty, at least for about 
thirty years, in maintaining the school in ever increas- 
ing efficiency. Even now, when the debt incurred for 
the new building is very large, the friends of Catholic 
education make it possible to carry on the school in 
first class style and with first class results. The rooms 
are well filled with bright and ambitious children, and 
the Regents' certificates won by our pupils are a com- 
pliment to the teachers, and a source of gratification to 
the parents and to the clergy. 

Our first offshoot, St. Vincent Ferrers parish, with 
its daughter parish of St. Catherine, established a 
school at the earliest possible moment and the present 
results, as tested in the Regis High School, show the 
remarkably good work performed by the Sisters of St. 
Dominic. The other parishes established in our early 
territory, St. Monica's, Our Lady of Good Counsel, 
St. Jean Baptiste, except St. Francis de Sales, have 
each established flourishing parochial schools, and all 
are well attended. It is expected that the latter parish 
will have a school of its own in the near future. 

Besides St. Lawrence's Academy another inter- 
mediate school for girls was opened by the Sisters of 
Mercy on their extensive property on Madison Avenue 
and Eighty-First Street and continued for a short time. 
But in order to make room for some two hundred 
homeless children, wards of the city, the Sisters closed 
their Academy and housed the waifs. It was an act 



282 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

of charity well worthy of the daughters of Mother 
McCauley, and one that deserved a warmer recognition 
than it has met in recent days. This was not the only 
occasion that the Sisters of Mercy gave up an Academy 
to devote their energies to caring for the destitute, but 
with such exercise of charity our work is not concerned, 
however edifying and attractive in itself. 

The Marist Brothers opened in 1892 an Academy 
for boys on Seventy-Seventh Street and Lexington 
Avenue. It is under the patronage of Saint Anne, and 
affords the boys of the parochial school attached to the 
French Church of St. Jean Baptiste, and boys of sur- 
rounding parishes, an opportunity of pursuing their 
studies of High School grade under Catholic and de- 
voted teachers. At an important period of their lives 
they are shielded from the dangers of doubt that may 
easily arise from contact with non-Catholic and non- 
Christian companions, and they are further grounded 
in their religion by the Fathers of the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, who serve the Church of St. Jean Baptiste. 
The number of students in attendance is about three 
hundred. 

An event of importance in the educational history, 
not only of our parish, but of the whole city of New 
York, was the opening of the Regis High School on 
September 14th, 1914. Two hundred and fifty grad- 
uates of the parochial schools of the city were admitted 
to the first year of the course. No one was received 
who had not a Regents' certificate showing an average 
of eighty per cent, in each and all studies. The num- 
ber of applicants was so large that the standard had 
necessarily to be raised in order not to exclude the 



EDUCATION 283 

brighter boys. They could best profit by the course, 
and, other things being equal, they should have first 
choice. As education at the Regis is entirely free, the 
desire to avail themselves of its advantages must neces- 
sarily act as a stimulus on the boys in the higher grades 
of all our schools, and, without doubt, it will spur on 
the schools themselves to get as high a representation 
as possible on the roster of students. The influence 
may become wider still ; because results achieved in one 
school will animate other schools, too, though far re- 
moved from Regis, to accomplish similar results. 

The building fronts 123 feet on Eighty-Fourth 
Street and 166 feet on Eighty-Fifth Street, having 
a depth of 200 feet from street to street. It is 
five stories high, contains over fifty class rooms, all 
thoroughly lighted and capable, of thorough ventila- 
tion. The front on the Eighty-Fourth Street first floor 
is taken up with offices of the Principal and Vice- 
Principal with their waiting rooms and a clerk's 
quarters. A corridor runs to the north section on the 
east side flanking a ball-court that occupies two floors 
from the basement. On the west side of the first floor 
there is a noble Sodality Chapel with frescoed ceiling, 
and walls encrusted in rich marble, the whole lighted by 
four large stained glass windows. Heavy walnut pews 
and two confessionals of the same material temper the 
brightness of the handsome marble altar and the bronze 
sanctuary railing. The atmosphere is one of deep peace 
and religious solemnity. Extremes of lightness and 
heaviness are happily avoided and there is nothing but 
good taste, and an invitation to devotion. 

The middle space between the two fronts and the 



284 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

chapel and hall is a courtyard open to the sky, a play- 
ground in recess time, and a source of light for the 
class rooms on all sides. Two floors on the north side 
of the building are occupied by the hall which has a 
seating capacity of about 1,600. A large gymnasium 
in the basement affords means of exercise in all 
weathers and a shelter on inclement days. The roof 
is constructed in such a manner as to allow oppor- 
tunities for recreation in fine weather. 

The Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame of 
Montreal came to take charge of the teaching of the 
French Canadian children belonging to the Church of 
St. Jean Baptiste. In their first year, 1886, they had 
ninety pupils who by this time have grown to about 
five hundred and fifty. At the same time they opened 
an Academy in a single house and registered fifty girls 
the first year. The number has gone on increasing 
until now there are over one hundred and sixty in all. 
The Academy and the community house are located at 
137 and 139 East Seventy-Ninth Street. Their first 
Superior, Sister S. Celestine, watched over the nascent 
institute for fourteen years. Sister St. Pierre is in 
charge at the present time. 

The Ursuline Sisters, daughters of St. Angela 
Merici, in the prosecution of their work of teaching 
girls, opened an Academy on Park Avenue and Ninety- 
Fourth Street in the month of January, 1897. and 
changed to Ninety-Third Street in 1899. Here they 
remained until 1911. In September of that year they 
took the school of St. Angela's parish under their 
charge, and, to have a home for the school Sisters 
and those of the Academy together, they moved the 



EDUCATION 285 

Academy to the unoccupied territory of the Concourse 
and One Hundred and Sixty-Fifth Street, where they 
are pursuing their sacred calling. 

A girls' High School is a desideratum for our sec- 
tion of the city, and, when it comes, it will draw 
students from St. Vincent's to St. Cecilia's parish, as 
no one parish could supply pupils enough, as no one 
parish could supply an endowed school for its own girls 
of High School grade. When can they combine, or 
when will the endowment take place? 



CHAPTER XXII 
Works of Mercy. 

The first institution of Mercy established in our 
midst was the Orphan Asylum inaugurated by the 
German Catholics living principally in St. Alphonsus' 
parish. They chose by preference a country site for 
seclusion and pure air. They found both by the pur- 
chase of the Gracie Mansion on Eighty-Ninth Street 
and Avenue A and its surrounding property. The pur- 
chase price was 22,500 dollars. On March 25th, 1859, 
the asylum was formally opened in the presence of a 
large crowd both from the city and the village. The 
struggle to support the orphans was a long and hard 
one. But charity, thrift and perseverance won the 
fight. A charter from the legislature placed the man- 
agement in the hands of a body of Catholic laymen 
who succeeded, after many efforts, in collecting an 
endowment fund, and secured an appropriation of two 
dollars a week for every child committed to the asylum. 
They enlarged the plant to its present generous pro- 
portions, and made the chapel, up to the building of 
St. Joseph's Church in 1874, a centre of worship for 
the German Catholics of Yorkville. The care and 
tuition of the children is under the Sisters of Notre 
Dame of Baltimore. As the asylum from its inception 
to the present has served the city at large, rather than 
our parish, it is needless to dwell longer on the theme. 

The first purely charitable organization in the parish 



WORKS OF MERCY 



287 



was a branch of the young Catholic Friends' Associa- 
tion. The minutes of its first meeting, November 24th, 
1861, are missing. Those that have come down to us 
are dated January 19th, 1862. Its object was to can- 
vass the parish in order to find out the number of 
children, to get them to attend Mass and Sunday 
School, and to supply shoes and clothing to those who 
needed them in order to comply with the obligation of 
hearing Mass, and to obtain necessary religious instruc- 
tion. The enclosed extract is taken from a fly leaf 
of the book of minutes of the Society. "The following 
persons have been selected to canvass the parish to 
ascertain the number of Catholic children therein, and 
their condition, that steps may be taken to encourage 
them to attend Sunday School." 



Charles Sheran 
James King 

Patrick Sullivan 
James Boyle 

William Bradley 
Patrick Kinney 

Thomas Beaty 
Thomas Gallon 

Michael Falvey 
George V. Mullan 

John Sullivan 
Cornelius Driscoll 

Bernard McCabe 
Michael Malin 



V From 65th Street, 
I to 79th Street, 

1 From 79th Street, 
J to 82nd Street, 

| From 82nd Street. 
J to 83rd Street, 

|From 83rd Street, 
J to 84th Street, 

IFrom 84th Street, 
J to 85th Street, 

| From 85th Street, 
J to 86th Street, 



North Side 
South Side 

North Side 
South Side 

North Side 
South Side 

North Side 
South Side 

North Side 
South Side 

North Side 
South Side 



IFrom 86th Street, North Side 
■f to 87th Street, South Side 



288 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Ronald McDonald jFrom 87th Street, North Side 
Michael Bergan J to 88th Street, South Side 

Mathew Fogarty 1 From 88th Street, North Side 

Michael Halloran J to 90th Street, South Side 

Bernard Fitzsimmons 1 From 90th Street, North Side 
Thomas McGovern -* to 92nd Street, South Side 

James T. Roby |From 92nd Street, North Side 

Martin Shelly ho the balance of the parish. 

Here are many new names not contained in the list 
of the Building Committee of ten years earlier, and the 
territory to be covered is much more restricted owing 
to the growth of the parish in the meantime. The 
work of the Association was productive of good, if we 
are to judge by the number of pairs of shoes and the 
amount of clothing given out. The first President 
was Captain Twomey, the Secretary, Joseph Coffey 
and the Treasurer, R. W. Roby. A source of revenue 
was contribution or dues by the members, a more pro- 
lific one was a lecture by Father Mulledy on his arrival 
in the parish, netting near 100 dollars, and better still a 
picnic to Jones' Wood. In the Treasurer's report for 
the year 1862, the second item is a bill (Dec. 12th, 
1861,) for thirty pairs of shoes at 37 1-2 cents a pair. 
The Civil War had not yet begun to run up prices. 
The next item will excite the envy of our St. Vincent 
de Paul Conference; it is for sixty pairs of shoes at 
23 cents a pair. The total amount disbursed the first 
year was $453.30. The money expended went to pur- 
chase 715 pairs of shoes, 15 pairs of pantaloons, ma- 
terial for dresses and other like needs. It seems that 



WORKS OF MERCY 289 

Captain Twomey fell ill during the year and was 
obliged to resign. The President's report is made 
by R. T. Kelly, who probably had been Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

In the meeting of January 25th, 1863, Mr. Robert 
McGinnis was elected President ; Mr. Thomas Sullivan. 
Vice-President; James T. Roby, Secretary; R. W. 
Roby, Treasurer. The same charitable work was con- 
tinued with increasing prices and increasing receipts. 
The last meeting, held July 30th, 1865, was convened 
to accept the resignation of the President and to elect 
someone else in his place : neither end was fulfilled, nor 
was a motion carried to hand over the funds in the 
treasury to Father Mulledy. The Chairman declared 
the motion unconstitutional. Presumably he looked 
upon such action as virtual suicide. The meeting was 
probably a heated one, and an adjournment was carried 
after a second motion to that effect. The last word in 
a very interesting account of a really charitable organi- 
zation is the name of Robert McGinnis, Jr. 

The following minutes of the first meeting of the 
Conference of St. Lawrence, Society of St. Vincent de 
Paul, will go far to explain the cessation of the meet- 
ings of the Young Catholic Friends' Association, and 
why the Association was dissolved : 

New York, Dec. 24th. 1865. 
At a preliminary meeting held in the school room 
attached to St. Lawrence Church, convened by the late 
Pastor, the Rev. Samuel Mulledy, for the purpose of 
organizing a Conference of the Society of St. Vincent 
de Paul the following persons were present, viz. : 



290 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 



E. V. Fargis, C. Donahoe, 


T. Crimmins, 


E. J. Murray, M. Reilley, 


T. Falvey, 


G. V. Mullin, T. S. Haughey, 


M. Cordiel, 


P. Kelly, F. Twomey, 


T. Hughes, 


Robert McGinnis, Jr., T. 


Scanlon, 


J. Welsh, T. 


Fitzgerald, 


J. W. O'Connor, H. 


McMullin, 


J. Sullivan, , K. 


Kavanagh. 



On motion, Edward V. Fargis was declared unani- 
mously elected President of the Conference of St. 
Lawrence. Subsequently, T. S. Haughey was ap- 
pointed Vice-President, Robert McGinnis, Jr., Secre- 
tary, and Edward J. Murray, Treasurer. There being 
no further business, the meeting adjourned. 

ROBERT McGINNIS, JR., 

Secretary. 

Father Mulledy. a few weeks before he was called 
to his reward, wishing to broaden the charitable activi- 
ties in the parish and to extend aid not only to the 
young, to enable them to attend Mass and Sunday 
School, but to every person young and old in destitute 
circumstances, resolved to found a Conference of the 
Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Yorkville. It could 
do, and would willingly do, all that the Young Catholic 
Friends' Association aimed at; and would extend its 
relief to every form of need, corporal and spiritual — 
the latter directly, when possible, and through the 
clergy, when a priest's ministrations were necessary. 
It was clearly to the interests of the parish that a Con- 
ference should be established. It was equally clear 
that the earlier society performing a meritorious work 



WORKS OF MERCY 291 

was not willing to efface itself if permanence were 
consistent with unity and edification. Edification pre- 
vailed in the long run. Some of the members of the 
Young Catholic Friends' Association bowed to the will 
of the pastor, and to the greater good of the parish; 
others were satisfied to make contributions when parish 
needs called for support, but abstained from active 
work. 

Thus was inaugurated a movement which has re- 
sulted in untold good during the last fifty years. Not 
only have the members of the Conference of St. Vincent 
de Paul supplied shoes for those who needed them and 
clothes, too, but also food and fuel and house rem, 
when necessary. They have kept countless families 
together when, without their aid, children would Le 
separated from parents ; they have procured work for 
the unemployed ; they have kept parents together ; they 
have brought backsliders to the Sacraments, and many 
Protestant parents to the faith. They have been from 
the beginning a potent influence for good, have been 
regular in attendance and generous contributors in 
money to their own treasury. They have sacrificed their 
time and conveniences, without hope of temporal re- 
ward, to the necessities of others. From the very- 
inception of the Conference the attendance has been 
notable, and careless members have been mercilessly 
dropped from the roll of members. What they are 
now, apostles of charity, they have been from the be- 
ginning, and their records are a proof that to be a 
member of the Conference one must be regular, unsel- 
fish and self-sacrificing for the benefit of the poor, the 
representatives of Christ. Who can tell the contribu- 



3fig FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

tions made in the last fifty years, the wants supplied, 
the misery relieved, the homes preserved, the hungry 
fed, the harborless harbored, the naked clad, the fami- 
lies preserved in union, the dissidents reconciled, the 
careless brought to the practice of their religion by the 
visits of the Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul? Christ 
is the book-keeper. He knows it all and He will re- 
pay, and all the more because the work has been done 
silently, without parade, without sounding of drums, 
like His own merciful deeds. 

It might be interesting to detail the officers of the 
Society for the space of fifty years, from Fargis to 
Fargis, from father to son, but it would scarcely 
harmonize with the spirit of Ozanam to blazon the 
names of those who wished their good works to be 
known to the Omniscient alone. Hence, we pass by 
the roll of officers in silence, as they performed their 
charitable works in silence, for the love of God, ex- 
pecting no human, no temporal reward; but looking 
to God for reward, if recompense for their charity ever 
entered their minds. It is proper, however, to chronicle 
that the parish was always behind them, appreciated 
their works and supported them by contributions. 

Of the communities engaged in works of mercy in 
this parish the first to arrive were the Sisters of the 
Good Shepherd. They sought larger quarters and 
greater retirement than was possible in their contracted 
home on Fourteenth Street. For the success of their 
work silence and retirement were a prime necessity ; 
for they had to preserve from danger and temptation 
young girls of wayward disposition, those whose home 
life was an insufficient preservative against surround- 



WORKS OF MERCY 293 

ings that constantly invited ruin; they had to lift up 
those who had fallen by the wayside and stained their 
baptismal robes with a stain that, in the eyes of a 
hypocritical world, is irremovable ; but which a merciful 
God will make as white as wool, even though it had 
been as red as blood: they had provided a home of 
prayer for those among their charge whom the Lord, 
as in the case of Magdalene, called to a life of prayer 
and penance and love ; finally they needed quarters for 
those also, who, thoroughly converted and knowing 
their weakness, feared to trust themselves amid the 
known temptations of a seductive world, and preferred 
to end their days among those who had watched over 
them, bore with their many defects, nursed them back 
to grace, and never pointed at them with the finger of 
scorn, their loving, tender, patient Mothers. 

These devoted religious found what they were look- 
ing for in the Prime property on Ninetieth Street and 
East River — good air, privacy and silence. Little by 
little they enlarged their plant from the original man- 
sion to the present imposing, though plain, structures 
facing on Ninetieth and Eighty-Ninth Streets, Avenue 
A and the East River. For thirty years they were 
aided in their Christlike work by the Jesuits, who heard 
the confessions of nuns and of inmates, preached to 
them, gave them retreats and tridua and conferences, 
and prepared the dying for their last battle against 
Satan and despair. Great was the distress in 1892 
when the Jesuit confessors were removed. Superiors 
concluded that the time had come when St. Ignatius' 
legislation against the regular hearing of the confes- 
sions of nuns should be enforced. There were, by this 



294 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

time, priests in abundance in most countries to act as 
regular confessors for religious, without calling upon 
Jesuits to act in that capacity ; for the latter should be 
ready at a moment's notice to go whithersoever neces- 
sity demanded, and should not be tied down to a 
chaplain's or a confessor's post. Providence has so 
arranged it that the Sisters have not suffered by the 
change. They have an experienced and zealous con- 
fessor to call once a week, and they have a Jesuit as 
extraordinary four times in the year. 

The number of vocations to the Good Shepherd 
from St. Lawrence and St. Ignatius' parish is a testi- 
mony to the strong appeal which their work makes to 
the young women and girls of Yorkville. The cloistered 
life is not nowadays alluring to the young, accustomed 
from the cradle to seek enjoyment everywhere; yet the 
long line of vocations is second only to that which 
contains the names of those who have followed their 
teachers in the school and academy of the Sisters of 
Charity. It is not the view or busy commerce of the 
river which attracts; because most of the day, if not 
all day, the river is shut off from the gaze. Pure love 
of God and sympathy with the outcast are the magnets 
which attract apostolic souls to the Good Shepherd. 
Who can tell the number of souls they have been instru- 
mental in sending to Heaven from the infirmary? 
Who can guess the number who have returned to the 
world perfectly converted ? Who can tell the number 
preserved from sin or consecrated to heroic sanctity by 
prayer and penance? Some have gone astray in spite 
of a pure home and its sacred shelter. It must be so. 
There was a "Judas in the class of Christ, yet we 



WORKS OF MERCY 295 

rejoice to recount the heroic death of the eleven rather 
than the treason and despair of the one." 

"On May 14th, 1866, the corner stone of St. 
Joseph's Industrial Home was laid by the Rev. William 
H. Clowry, Ecclesiastical Superior of the Community, 
whose Mother-House was St. Catherine's Convent of 
Mercy, 35 East Houston Street. Erected on ground 
granted by the city in recognition of the services of the 
Sisters in the military hospitals at Newberne and Beau- 
fort, North Carolina, during the Civil War, it was 
primarily intended for the protection and education of 
the daughters of the brave soldiers who gave their lives 
so freely for the emancipation of an alien race. 

"The building is of red brick, five stories in height, 
and originally afforded accommodation for three hun- 
dred inmates, later additions increasing this capacity. 
To the kindly gift of the Jesuit Fathers the children of 
to-day owe the fine luxuriant shade trees under which 
they recreate, sent as saplings by Rev. Father Moylan, 
S. J., of happy memory. 

"On the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. 
September 8th, 1869, the Home was solemnly blessed, 
and thrown open for the reception of its eager friends. 
High Mass was celebrated in the modest little chapel 
at 10 o'clock by Rev. William H. Clowry, and the 
hearts of the good Superiors, Rev. Mother Augustine 
McKenna, Mother Austin Horan, Mother Joseph Dev- 
ereaux, Mother Alphonsus Smythe and the Sisters 
could rejoice in the Lord for His bountiful answer to 
their years of prayer for the establishment of this 
holiest work of mercv. After the benediction of the 



296 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Blessed Sacrament, which followed the august Sacrifice 
of Mass, Mother Alphonsus Smythe was installed as 
the first Superior. 

"On the 24th of September, 1869, the feast of Our 
Lady of Mercy, about one hundred young girls were 
transferred to St. Joseph's from the House of Mercy 
(Houston Street; and also thirty little girls under ten 
years of age, until this date maintained at the Home 
on Second Avenue, established by Mother Augustine 
MacKenna on November 21st, I860, and supported by 
private contributions, chiefly from the members of the 
Sacred Heart Sodality (Houston Street). From 1869 
until 1876 St. Joseph's Home gave shelter, food and 
education to many hundreds of the city's destitute 
children, receiving no financial aid from the city or 
State, ways and means of support being provided by 
the efforts of the community and its friends, and the 
income derived from St. Agnes' Academy, a boarding 
and day school. This was conducted for some years 
in one wing of the building on Eighty-First Street, and 
was removed to Baldwin-on-the-Hudson in 1876. to 
make room for the children, boys and girls, committed 
to the Sisters' care by the city, when the law com- 
manded that its dependent little ones should be brought 
up in the religion of their parents. 

"The history of St. Joseph's from the beginning in 
1869 to the present year of the Lord 1916, is nobly 
written in the Book of Eternal Life, where the good 
Sisters of Mercy shall find the reward of their sacri- 
ficial labors, and hear the sweet "Welcome Home" 
from the lips of the Master, for Whose ^ake all the 
trials and anxieties involved in their motherlv care of 



WORKS OF MERCY 297 

the children have been cheerfully, nay heroically en- 
dured." 1 

Over and above the permanent camps for the treat- 
ment of the sick in our midst such as the Presbyterian 
and German and Misericorde Hospitals (of which the 
latter alone is under Catholic management) a flying 
column of religious devoted to the care of the ailing 
settled in our parish on the 19th of July, 1889. They 
are the Sisters of Bon Secours, residing at the north- 
east corner of Lexington Avenue and Eighty-First 
Street. The colony of religious, composed of two 
members, Sisters Madeline de Pazzi, Superioress, and 
Ambroise, came from Paris on the 15th of February, 
1882, and found hospitality for about two months at 
the Foundling Asylum under the Sisters of Charity on 
Sixty-Eighth Street. They began work immediately, 
taking care of the sick in their homes, according to 
their vocation, and when they secured a house of their 
own, 146 West Twenty-Second Street, they moved and 
remained there until May 1st, 1884. As the house was 
inadequate, owing to the accession of several other 
members from France, they sought new quarters at 
152 East Sixty-Sixth Street, which served them for 
five years, or until their spacious convent in Yorkville 
was ready. They are trained nurses, with the tra- 
ditions of the hospitals of Paris, they are trained re- 
ligious, with the best traditions of Catholic France, 
and they are trained catechists, too, their manifold skill 
enabling them, while caring for the body, to nurse back 
the sick soul to faith and contrition and patience, and 
to hope in the mercy of God. What a boon they have 

Condensed from the account supplied by the Sisters of Mercy. 



298 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

been to many a sick mother left alone in pain and soli- 
tude, while the daughter is away down town earning 
enough to keep body and soul together, and to pay for 
the little corner called home. 

On March 10th, 1913, they were invited by Father 
Hearn to take charge of the Day Nursery at 142 East 
Eighty-Second Street, which charge they accepted, and 
continued to manage the new nursery on Eighty- 
Fourth Street from its opening until February 2nd, 
1917, when they were succeeded by the Sisters of 
Charity. 

A large portion of humanity is so taken up with 
scrutiny of the crimes and miseries and unsightliness 
all around, that they have little time, perhaps little 
inclination in some cases, to notice and examine and 
record what is bright and cheering and hopeful and 
edifying in their environment. There is untold good 
accomplished by Catholics which even Catholics do not 
perceive. Following the counsel of Christ to keep 
from the left hand knowledge of what the right hand 
is doing, Catholic workers have no drum to beat, no 
statistics to publish, to call the attention of the world 
to their good works. This is particularly true of the 
activities of the Helpers of the Holy Souls. These are 
a community of religious who came from France to 
New York in 1892. Their first home was in 27 Sev- 
enth Avenue, which they occupied for three years and 
then emigrated to larger quarters at 112 East Eighty- 
Sixth Street. Their work and their friends have so 
multiplied here that they have lately been enabled to 
begin the construction of a convent more suited to their 
mode of life than they could find in remodeled dwelling 
houses. Their peculiar aim is to pray, suffer, and 



WORKS OF MERCY 299 

work for the souls in Purgatory. Besides laboring for 
their own perfection, like all other religious, they take 
to themselves those words of Job as applied to the 
suffering souls : "Have pity on me, have pity on me, 
at least you, my friends." So, for the holy souls they 
pray and get others to pray ; they labor in visiting and 
comforting and relieving the sick, even to the per- 
formance of the most menial duties, in preparing them 
for the Sacraments and for death. They instruct in- 
quirers in the doctrines of the Church and get them 
ready for the Sacraments and gather into afternoon 
classes children from the public schools who have 
grown up in ignorance of the Faith; and in the eve- 
nings they devote themselves to working girls for 
instruction in religion, with recreations agreeably 
thrown in when they will do most good. They are a 
strong antidote to the efforts so largely made to attract 
children to Protestant Sunday Schools and churches. 
Their charity and self-sacrifice in the homes of the sick 
and the poor are rewarded by numerous recruits to the 
catechism classes ; and the genial welcome there and the 
invaluable instruction received turn these recruits into 
apostles for others. Thus the work goes on in ever 
widening circles. 

The Day Nursery. 

Two ladies interested in the care of children, and 
anxious to aid struggling mothers, asked permission of 
the pastor to start a Day Nursery within the limits of 
our parish. His Grace, the Archbishop, was favor- 
able, and consequently the permission to open the house 
was given. As, however, such work was intimately 
connected with the church, the Archbishop desired that 



300 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

it should be immediately under the supervision of the 
Fathers, and owned by them exclusively, that is, by the 
corporation of St. Ignatius Church. The burden of 10,- 
000 dollars additional debt was shouldered. On the 10th 
of June, 1910, the work was begun at 243 East Eighty- 
Second Street, and Father Scott was given the direction 
of the project. He succeeded in securing the interest 
of a number of ladies and organized them into a Ladies' 
Auxiliary Society with dues of 10 dollars per annum. 
It was a small endowment, but aid came from many 
sources; food and groceries and other supplies from 
surrounding merchants, proceeds of concerts and con- 
tributions from other familiar sources swelled the 
receipts. 

After two and one half years of existence the man- 
agement of the Day Nursery was entrusted to the Bon 
Secour Sisters, who, as religious and trained nurses, 
were calculated to give the best results. They entered 
on their new duties on March 10th, 1913. The or- 
phans have always appealed strongly to the Catholics 
of Yorkville, so that even in the periods of severest 
financial struggle the collection for the orphans was 
most generous. Influenced by the same spirit of 
charity the Auxiliary Committee was doubled in num- 
ber, and the members added the product of deft fingers 
to the dues taken from easily opened purses. 

The sympathy of Mr. Nicholas Brady was enlisted 
in the work, and as he is accustomed to big things, his 
sympathy took on big proportions. He promised a 
new site and purchased it — 240 and 242 East Eighty- 
Fourth Street — and on it he erected a magnificent five 
story building fitted out with every requisite for a Day 
Nursery. It was occupied by the children and the 



1 1 

j 




Wk 


iM 


J 


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l 



Day Nursery 



WORKS OF MERCY 301 

Sisters on June 10th, 1915. On July 12th, 1915, 
Father Hearn received the following letter, which ex- 
plains itself. 

Reverend David W. Hearn, 

Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, 
Xew York City. 
My Dear Father Hearn : 

I beg to offer to the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola 
the building at 240 East Eighty-Fourth Street for a 
Day Nursery in memory of my father, Anthony Brady. 
The only condition I make is that none shall be denied 
the use of its facilities on account of race, creed or 
color. 

It is my intention to support this nursery during my 
life time, and leave an endowment commensurate with 
its needs thereafter. Yours truly. 

N. F. BRADY. 

Fireproof throughout, equipped with the latest light- 
ing, heating and ventilating devices, the new Nursery 
was built to accommodate 200 children. Passing 
through the imposing portal the visitor is shown into 
the reception room to the right of the entrance hall, 
beyond which are the children's coat room and the 
doctor's office, where three times a week the children's 
little ailments are treated by a visiting doctor, and any 
nascent disease immediately detected. At the rear are 
the kitchen and laundry, complete with labor-saving 
machines of the latest invention. The exquisite little 
chapel with its sacristy is on the first floor, and its 
stained srlass windows and mural decorations are but 



302 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

the first evidences of the good taste which prevails 
throughout the building. The altar is white marble 
with an artistic and devotional statue of Our Lady in 
the same material, as its central figure. Similar statues 
on either side are of St. Aloysius and St. Agnes, Pa- 
trons of Youth and Innocence. 

Immediately behind the sacristy is the dining room, 
lofty and spacious, with large tables for the Sisters 
and school children, and tiny little round ones, with 
miniature chairs to match, for the tots. On the floor 
above, over the dining room, is the infants' dormitory, 
where white is the prevailing color — white beds, white 
chairs, white safety railings, and even white rocking- 
horses. Moreover, in this department, the Sisters 
wear white habits instead of black. In a room ad- 
joining the dormitory are kept the latest conveniences 
for bathing the babies, heating water, sterilizing milk 
bottles, etc. On the same floor at the front of the 
building, are a more formal reception room and, open- 
ing from it, the sewing room, where three sewing 
machines and a closet full of supplies await the zeal 
of various charitable ladies who come occasionally to 
sew for the children. Going up one flight higher, we 
reach the Kindergarten, where most of the active work 
of the day is carried on. A tiled fireplace that is a 
delight to the artistic eye, and mural medallions of the 
Delia Robbia style help to make the room exceedingly 
beautiful, and in its other furnishings everything has 
been done with an eye to the children's comfort and 
instruction. On this floor, the front of the house is 
given over to two sleeping rooms for* the Sister and a 
linenroom, while over these again are the servants 



WORKS OF MERCY 303 

rooms. The roof is equipped with a small private 
enclosure in front for the Sisters, and at the back a 
large playground for the children. 

A last word on the charitable institutions in the 
parish should be said about the flight of the New York 
Protectory, which was interrupted by a short stay in 
Yorkville, an unfortunate stay, on the way to West- 
chester. The quarters of both sexes downtown were 
so restricted that an enlargement was imperative. This 
section seemed healthful and was comparatively un- 
occupied, with real estate moderate in price. The 
Board of Directors of the Catholic Protectory procured 
a site on Fifth Avenue and Eighty-Sixth Street, south 
side, for the boys and their teachers, the Christian 
Brothers. They came in May, 1864, and fell to the 
care of Father Mulledy. Scarcely had they settled 
down before an epidemic of typhoid fever broke out 
and prostrated a large number of boys. Fortunately 
one only died, but the teachers were not so lucky. The 
pumps might serve safe water to a family here and 
there, they could not supply a large institution. In a 
little over a year they left us and settled in their great 
home at Westchester. Scarcely were the boys housed 
in their temporary home amongst us before an appeal 
was made to the charitable ladies of the parish to assist 
in repairing the clothes of the poor lads of the Re- 
formatory. We have no records of the response made 
to Father Coyle's appeal. 

The girls whom Sister Domitilla planted on the same 
street near Second Avenue were more unfortunate than 
the boys. An epidemic struck them also, and took off 
some of the girls and Sister Domitilla herself. The 



304 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

malady seemed to have contaminated the house; for 
when later used as a school building, the epidemic broke 
out afresh, and the place had to be abandoned. In- 
fected clothing from the island is supposed to have 
originated the epidemic. 

In 1907 the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart, 
whose main work is instruction of deaf mutes, colored 
children and inmates of almshouses and prisons, were 
obliged for financial reasons to give up their home at 
SB] East Seventy-Xinth Street. The building was 
occupied in September of that year by Sisters of St. 
Zita as a branch house of their home on Fifty-Second 
Street. It is a shelter for homeless respectable women, 
a refuge for a night or a month for such as are without 
a refuge of their own. The place is free of charge 
to the inmates and is supported by alms and the pro- 
ceeds of a laundry conducted by the guests under the 
supervision of two Sisters. Doles of bread generously 
donated by neighbors are given out to poor men who 
are unable to support themselves. These doles had 
been distributed to such numbers on Fifty-Second 
Street that residents about the Home complained of the 
undesirable loiterers around that neighborhood. So it 
has come to pass that another charitable work is located 
in our parish. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Rieligious Growth. 

In the early announcements of the church, and in 
the words of those who now go back to the earliest 
days, every religious organization in the church seems 
to have been called a sodality. The first one mentioned 
in the books is that of the Ladies' Altar Society. This 
seems to have been called into existence as soon as the 
church neared completion in order to have the altar 
ready, and fully furnished for the first Mass said on 
Christmas Day, 1853. On January 19th, 1854, the 
Treasurer paid out $42.49 for a bill contracted by them. 
From this time onward the name of the Ladies' Altar 
Society, or Sanctuary Society, turns up at intervals in 
the cash accounts, and church notices as read from the 
altar. Their chief activity was displayed at the time 
of the Forty Hours, Holy Thursday and Corpus 
Christi, and often contributions are solicited to aid 
them in their devotional work. Their activity is more 
in evidence under some pastors than under others. It 
is the tendency of all efforts to relax in natural and 
supernatural things alike, and spurring on to new 
energy is necessary at times in both spheres. It is true 
that all along the line quick response was made to calls 
for labor and devotion; for the adornment of God's 
House and Shrine is dear to every devout Catholic 
heart. But not only did the ornamentation of the altar 
fall to their care, they looked after the making of altar 

305 



306 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

linen, the repair of vestments and of cassocks and 
surplices for the Sanctuary boys, and watched over the 
appearance of the boys, who, if left to themselves, 
might often carry to the Sanctuary the traits of the 
baseball player, not because of any irreverence, but 
owing to the thoughtlessness of their years. Besides 
actual work done for the Sanctuary, the dues of the 
members, active and contributing, are a source of rev- 
enue which is exclusively devoted to providing for the 
Sanctuary. Not to speak of the living, the Society 
owes much of its continual activity to Fathers Treanor, 
Merrick and James Conway. The ladies of the Sanct- 
uary Society seem to have been the nucleus about which 
gathered all those who labored to secure financial aid 
by means of fairs. There is said to have been a fair 
in the days of Father O'Reilly in December, 1851, and 
certainly one was needed, if for no other purpose, to 
support the pastor and to procure means to begin the 
herculean task of building a church in Yorkville. With 
the coming of Father Quarter and for near a half a 
century later fairs were frequently held in the old school 
house while it lasted and in the new one after 1868. 

The Rosary Society is mentioned in the notices for 
the first time on May 1st, 1864. It probably existed 
before that time and may well derive its origin from 
the pious practice of daily reciting the beads which pre- 
vailed in Father Quarter's home in Killurine. The 
practice was fostered by Bishop Quarter at St. Mary's 
in New York and in the Cathedral in Chicago. Father 
Quarter had seen its value in both places, and was 
likely enough to promote it in Yorkville. It took the 
name of the Living Rosary in December, 1869, when 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 307 

Father Moylan organized the members into bands of 
ten, who paid 10 cents a month for aid to the Altar 
Society in its activities. The Communion Sunday for 
the Altar Society and Living Rosary, as well as for the 
Scapular, was the first Sunday of the month in union 
with the Ladies' Sodality. 

A Purgatorian Society is mentioned in the An- 
nouncement Book under date of June 26th, 1864. 
Members entered names from year to year, and prob- 
ably paid dues with their annual enrolment to have 
Masses said for the departed. 

The Scapular Society above mentioned may have 
originated in the days of Father Quarter, but it is im- 
possible to assign a date for its beginning here. It 
was very much emphasized by the Jesuits on their 
arrival, so much so that they made a report to Superiors 
of its annual progress. 

There is an unfortunate gap in the Announcements 
between February 4th and June 11th, 1865. In that 
brief period much activity for spiritual growth of the 
parish took place. Some of the survivors of those 
days say that there was a mission given by two Jesuit 
Fathers, and two mention the name of Father Prachen- 
sky as having had a share in the pious work, while 
one records that Father John Cunningham took part. 
These two Fathers happened to be in Fordham that 
year, one on the mission attached to the college, and 
the other as a professor. It is quite possible that 
Father Mulledy, who was on intimate terms with 
Father Tissot, the Minister and Treasurer of Fordham, 
and left with him a sum of money for Masses, asked 
the Rector for two men to give a mission in St. Law- 



308 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVTLLE 

rence and to establish the Bona Mors and Sodalities. 
The Baptismal record has no trace of converts being 
received into the church at the time by strangers, and 
the cash accounts of the day are missing, so it cannot 
be said for certain that there was or was not a mission. 
Survivors might confound the late mission conducted 
by Father Damen and Busschaert with some function 
at an earlier date. However, it is very suggestive that 
two old parishioners should remember Father Prachens- 
ky. If there was no Jesuit mission, the origin of the 
Bona Mors and the Sodalities must be traced to Father 
Mulledy's former membership in the Society. At that 
time the Bona Mors was practically unknown outside 
of Jesuit churches, and even now. despite the countless 
missions given all over the country, the devotion exists 
in but few parishes. People here spoke of the 
Sodality of the Bona Mors as if it were an organization 
like any of the ordinary Sodalities. Of course, persons 
of every age and sex could belong to it, and certainly 
boys were members in its earliest days, yet it seemed 
by a sort of tacit arrangement to be the spiritual refuge 
of the married men. Other classes had their special 
Communion Sunday every month while the married 
man had but the Bona Mors Sunday, invariably for 
years the Fourth Sunday. 

The Ladies' Sodality, founded at the same time as 
the Yound Ladies' Sodality and the Young Men's 
Sodality, had as their Director the Minister or Superior 
of the residence up to the time of Father Treanor, 
August, 1877. Their Communion Sunday was always 
the First Sunday of the month up to quite recent times. 
In the first organization of the Sodality, young girls 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 309 

were admitted on an equality with the married women 
and went to Holy Communion with them. However, 
in the Mission catalogue the Father in charge is said 
to direct Sod. Matron, the Sodality of the married 
women or matrons. The meetings were held in the 
school hall after Vespers. As the girls grew up to 
womanhood, some few remained with the women, 
while others found admission among the Young 
Ladies' Sodality. 

With the fidelity that characterizes the matron in 
church matters, meetings in goodly numbers took place 
regularly, and the members of the Ladies' Sodality had 
their honored places in celebrations, as at the end of 
May, which were held in St. Lawrence's from time to 
time. They were the best conservators of the old 
family spirit which existed in the parish as long as 
everybody knew everybody else, if we exclude those 
black sheep who constituted Father Walker's peculiar 
care. The beginning of the new century, however, 
ushered in a period of languor in the members that 
seems unaccountable, unless we surmise that the direc- 
tors took it for granted that the Ladies' Sodality would 
run itself and perpetuate itself without supervision. 
Whatsoever the cause, the members dwindled gradually 
until about 1908 the attendance fell below forty at a 
meeting. Dissolution of the body seemed imminent 
when there appeared a skillful physician, tireless in 
his efforts, and possessing the entire confidence of his 
spiritual patients. Attendance increased, backsliders 
returned, and new members were added, as a result 
of missions, or because attracted by interesting in- 
structions. 



310 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

In two years the number of Sodalists rose to four 
hundred under careful nursing, and spiritual activity 
demanded an outlet in works of charity. The Ladies' 
Auxiliary of the St. Vincent de Paul Society was 
established in response to the interior impulse to ex- 
terior works. The organization was divided into three 
branches — the Hospital, Relief and Sewing Commit- 
tees. The work of the Hospital Committee consisted 
in visiting the sick, attending to their spiritual needs, 
distributing Catholic literature and articles of piety and 
instructing those who sought enlightenment about the 
Church. The duties of the Relief Committee were 
procuring employment for those in need, visiting fami- 
lies who sought financial aid, caring for adults and 
children whose religious duties had been neglected, 
supervising the distribution of the annual Christmas 
dinners among those who stood most in need of them, 
also attending to the meetings held by the State and 
Diocesan Boards of Charities. The Sewing Committee 
devoted its time and energy to making and distributing 
wearing apparel for the worthy poor, and outfits for 
the children preparing for their First Communion. 
The happiest results have flowed from the activities 
of the Committees and the generosity of the Sodalists 
and parishioners. 1 

This Sodality was the first to be affiliated to the 
Prima Primaria in Rome. Application to that effect 
was made as soon as the Jesuits took charge of St. 
Lawrence, and a diploma of aggregation was issued 
on the 8th of September, 1866, under the title of the 
Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

1 Condcnsed from the sketch of the Prefect, Mrs. Mary F. Quilty, and 
supplemented from the church records. 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 311 

On July 2nd. 1865, the following notice was read 
at Mass: "Next Sunday is Communion Day for the 
Young Ladies' Sodality, Confessions will be heard on 
Saturday morning." It is the first mention of the new 
society. Probably it was not sufficiently organized 
to meet on the Second Sunday of June. In any case, 
owing to an interruption in the announcements, we 
cannot know the fact. 

In the history of the Young Ladies' Sodality there 
are two well-marked periods, one reaching from its 
establishment in 1864 under the fostering care of the 
Sisters of Charity and the supervision of one of the 
Fathers, the Superior generally, the other from the 
time of its passing over to the exclusive direction of a 
Father and its affiliation with the Prima Primaria in 
Rome. During the former period the meetings were 
held in the school house on the Second Sunday of the 
Month, with Mass in the morning at 7 o'clock and 
general Communion, and recitation of the office, in- 
struction and Benediction at 4 o'clock. The members 
were mostly former pupils of the Sisters, with girls 
and children admitted in separate classes, future re- 
cruits among the Young Ladies. The meetings were 
like family and festive gatherings, beginning with de- 
votions and ending in social converse. The day was 
anxiously awaited by the young, who enjoyed a double 
entertainment, one for the spirit and another to satisfy 
the social instinct and display colors and finery, 
occasions that occurred too seldom to satisfy the 
feminine heart. Veils and ribbons and medals and 
colors helped to satisfy both natural and supernatural 
tendencies in the hearts of the Children of Mary, and 



312 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

the number of vocations in the early days could lead 
one to conclude that the supernatural largely overbore 
the natural in the attractions of the day. Father 
Treanor took upon himself the direction of the Young 
Ladies' Sodality, leaving charge of the Matrons to 
another. His magnetism worked largely on the mem- 
bers, increased the number and drew to himself heartful 
devotion. The members in their Sodalists' garb 
marched in procession down to the Grand Central 
Depot at his funeral, a melancholy testimony of love 
for their cherished Director. Father Reid devoted 
himself heartily to the cultivation of the interior life 
in the members, and is yet gratefully remembered by 
those who were once under his care. A tot of the day 
now grown to generous proportions writes as follows : 
"The Reverend David A. Merrick, S. J., succeeded 
Father Reid as Director of the Children of Mary. 
Assisting him in his work, we find, during his term 
of office, Sister Regis and Sister Mary Agnes. He 
found the Sodality firmly established and well grounded 
in the principles which are the standards of the Chil- 
dren of Mary, and he devoted himself heart and soul 
to further the ends for which the Sodality was founded. 
Under his direction the Sodality was extended to in- 
clude the younger members of the parish. The girls 
and boys of tender years were formed into the Sodality 
of the Child Jesus, from babies of three to the 
mature youths and maidens of seven or eight, and the 
right of membership was granted to all who applied 
in person, and to all for whom it was requested by 
those able to appreciate its advantages. The girls who 
had made their first Communion were enrolled in the 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 313 

Sodality of the Holy Angels, from which they were 
allowed to enter the Children of Mary at the proper age. 

"The meetings of the entire Sodality were held on 
the Second Sunday as before. The Infants and the 
Angels met in the first-floor classrooms of the parochial 
school, the Children of Mary on the top floor. After 
the business meeting was over, the little girls, hand in 
hand, wearing their veils, descended to the hall and 
marched quietly to their seats in the rear. The little 
boys were on the opposite side, of course. At the front 
of the hall, near the statue of Our Lady, the banners 
of each division were grouped. Next the Angels took 
their place and then the Children of Mary, or, as the 
Infants were wont to remark in guarded whispers : 
'Here come all the big young ladies !' 

"What a pretty sight to recall after the lapse of 
years ! The hall crowded, white veiled heads bent low, 
the familiar hymns sung sweetly by the Children of 
Mary, with the treble of the Infants trailing faithfully 
after them, as the spirit moved the little ones to give 
voice to their pent-up energy, or, now and then, some 
lusty infant of the unveiled division cheerily carolling 
a hymn he knew, and proving his knowledge by ren- 
dering it before the Children of Mary could get ahead 
of him. 

"By the organization of these Junior Sodalities, a 
great deal of good was accomplished, not only for the 
members, but for the parish at large. The meetings, 
being held on a special Sunday, were somewhat an 
event. Parents became interested and many children 
attending the public school were thus brought under 
the influence of the Sisters. They were a great help 



314 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

in keeping track of the children who would otherwise 
grow up without instruction, although there was at the 
time a Catechism Class of Perseverance conducted by 
Father Moylan. 

"The solemn processions and receptions ! Prepared 
for months in advance, every detail perfected by the 
familiarity of repetition carried out in a spirit of love 
and reverance — how beautiful they were! On Pro- 
cession Sunday, the Sodalities met as usual in the hall ; 
hence they marched to the street. It was but a short 
distance to the old Church of St. Lawrence, and the 
procession was obliged to move slowly in order that 
there might not be over-crowding at the door or in the 
aisles. The sidewalks were lined with people, mostly 
parents of the Sodalists, though the non-Catholics of 
the neighborhood were always respectful observers. 
First came the infants dressed in white with red stock- 
ings, and broad, red sashes, and be it remembered, not 
'just red' sashes. A certain shade was correct — 
Sister Felicitas decided that point. Moreover an ex- 
clusive weave of ribbon was the only permissible thing 
for an Infant on procession days. The medal of the 
Child Jesus hung from a scarlet ribbon around each 
girl's neck. A wreath of tiny red flowers crowned 
every head. The wreaths of the officers were a little 
larger than the mere members', and they wore a ribbon 
over the right shoulder. The boys, alas, afforded scant 
opportunity for decoration, but they were a gallant 
sight with their red stockings and medals arranged in 
badge fashion. The officers wore broad red sashes 
across the shoulders; white gloves, of course, were 
de rigueur. 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 315 

"Both sections of the Infants had a Sodality ban- 
ner, proudly borne by the President when possible. 
Streamers falling from the banner were held by 
the officers. Frequently the President, though adorned 
with all youthful virtues, was not of sufficient size and 
endurance to hold the banner aloft, especially with the 
aides tugging valiantly in different directions at the 
streamers. So the banner was carried at times by an 
acolyte, the officers proudly holding the ribbons and 
the President, clasping a large bouquet, led the little 
band of aspirants for membership directly behind the 
banner. Followed the Angels, with sashes and stock- 
ings of palest blue, the ribbons of their medals of the 
same exquisite shade. They wore white wreaths, and 
the officers had their veils draped gracefully and 
fastened with bows of blue. 

"The most impressive feature of the occasion was 
the procession of the Children of Mary. The officers 
led, the President carrying the beautiful and beloved 
banner of the Immaculate Conception. They wore 
broad sashes of heavy white ribbon and wreaths of 
orange blossoms. At intervals of the line, a Sodalist 
carried a smaller white satin banner, lettered in gold 
with one of the mysteries of the rosary. As the pro- 
cession moved through the aisles, the Litany of the 
Blessed Virgin was chanted by the Sodalists, and was 
continued until they had reached their seats. There 
the Office of Our Lady was sung, after which followed 
the ceremony of reception." 

The second period in the history of the Sodality 
dates from September, 1889, when it passed from the 
hands of Father O'Connor to those of Father Massi. 



316 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Father O'Connor was not a man who would make a 
change in the conduct of a Sodality such as described 
above. He knew that it perfectly suited the taste of 
the members, that the traditions of the Sodality, its 
annual retreat and its double celebration in December 
and in May were rooted in the affections of the parish- 
ioners. Yet what he would not do himself he sanctioned 
in his successor, Father Massi. Coming from the fervid 
and fervent atmosphere of Rome, Father Massi brought 
with him a tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin, one 
that manifested itself more in acts of the mind, that is 
knowledge of the exalted station of the Mother of God, 
her prerogatives and virtues, and in acts of the will, love 
and imitation, rather than in outward display. Though 
he did not condemn such manifestations he determined 
to substitute interior devotion for external display. The 
intention was good, but many of the Sodalists were 
doubtful of the improvement. He changed the meet- 
ing time from the afternoon to the evening, from the 
school to the church, and made the assembly weekly 
instead of monthly. This cut off the Sisters from 
influence over the elder Sodalists, though they have 
continued to direct the girls to this day. The babies 
and the children had to stay at home. 

Father Massi threw his whole soul into working for 
the good of the Sodality. He procured affiliation with 
the original Sodality in Rome, thereby making possible 
the gaining of many indulgences, a very great merit in 
his eyes. To make up for defections, which were sure 
to follow any change in time-honored custom, he went 
about making recruits wherever he could, and so well 
did he succeed in recruiting that his admitted members 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 317 

reached at one time the extraordinary figure of 1,000. 
Of course, not more than half could be present any 
night. Still half the number was a very respectable 
congregation, and Father Massi labored hard to in- 
struct his flock, to entice them to the practice of virtue 
and imitation of the Mother of the Sodality. Beautiful 
prayers and hymns that appealed to his warm heart 
were said and sung and emphasized. His activity and 
vigilance kept the members together in creditable num- 
bers. But the flock was too large to remain herded 
without unusual attractions. It required extraordinary 
inducements to compel such a large number to forego 
pleasure and relaxation one evening every week after 
a day of toil and worry. 

Father Massi' s successor, Father Brie, endeavored 
with untiring zeal to continue the work of the Sodality 
on the same scale. But he, too, was forced to witness 
many cases of remissness in the attendance at the Mon- 
day meetings. Though inquiries and visits to back- 
sliders brought them for a time to the meetings, general 
attendance continued to fall off. Perhaps it was better 
so; for the Sodality is not intended for every one, but 
only for those who are ambitious for real religious 
progress and the cultivating of virtue. The invalid 
Father Gunn could do little to stem the decay that 
seemed to have set in, if the presence of two hundred 
members might be said to indicate a decay. It cer- 
tainly was a falling off from the full house in 1890 
under Father Massi. 

In the Autumn of 1905 a younger and more active 
director, Father Scott, took charge of the Sodality and 
left his impress on it during his long incumbency. He 



318 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

brought about a gratifying increase in the number, a 
greater regularity of attendance and in organization 
for mutual aid, for social intercourse. Social meetings 
and recreations had not been unknown in the past, 
though they were not as necessary in the old as in the 
new century. The old family spirit still existed to a 
large extent, and introductions were hardly necessary, 
but the rapid transformations of late years tend to 
make even neighbors strangers to one another. To 
overcome this spirit of aloofness that seems to grow in 
Xew York and to bring members together on the equal 
footing of membership in the same organization, recep- 
tions, entertainments, even plays, were attempted from 
time to time and with remarkable success. Where an 
entrance fee was charged, as at concerts and plays, the 
receipts were always devoted to some charitable pur- 
pose connected with the church. The good example 
set, and the success met with in the entertainments of 
the Sodality, may induce similar societies in other 
parishes to endeavor to supply clean and innocent 
amusement at home rather than seek entertainment 
in houses where restraints of decency are being cast off 
more and more as characteristic of medieval prudery. 
If the other parishes supply such talent in concerts, 
such merit in acting and composition of plays, it will 
be possible soon to have the best of entertainments at 
home without an aftertaste of contrition on the mor- 
row. One feature of Father Scott's administration 
deserves imitation elsewhere. With an attendance of 
over seven hundred members scattered over a crowded 
parish it was possible to come in contact with a large 
circle, and to find out without officiousness, the needs 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 319 

of many, and the means of coming to their aid. The 
motto, "We must look out for our own," was incul- 
cated and assimilated in the meetings with the effect, 
that, if any Sodalist came to hear of a vacancy of any 
kind in business, it was made known at once, that some 
Sodalist might fill the place ; and if one had for some 
reason or another to resign a post, she immediately 
sought to have it filled by a fellow member. Much 
mutual help was rendered in this way, and others, too, 
got the benefit of this charitable bureau. Nor was 
this the only phase of assistance to members practised 
by the sodalists. Any aid they could render one another, 
as coaching for an examination, was cheerfully given. 
Father Scott retired from the direction of the Sodality 
in 1915, leaving it in a flourishing condition to his suc- 
cessor, Father Daniel Quinn. 

The Announcement Book on Sunday, July 9th, 1865. 
begins with the following notice : "Next Sunday will 
be Communion Day for the Young Men's Sodality." 
It is the first time we hear of the organization. But 
the title is misleading according to our present usage. 
Not only were young men admitted, but boys also, 
and such as we would now call young boys. Father 
Mulledy, the Pastor and the interested Director of the 
Sodality, was fond of boys and was revered by them. 
As a teacher, the influence of his personality went far 
to spur them on to study, and to form their moral 
character. This does not mean that he coddled them, 
or that they did not revolt against rulings that they 
considered dictatorial. He had his standards and he 
was too much of a man of conviction to descend to the 
principles or practices of the ignorant and inexper- 



d20 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

ienced ; they must climb up to his. Hence a clash now 
and again ; but reverence for the man and his sacred 
character won the day. Like all the other Sodalists 
the Young Men had their Communion Sunday, but 
unlike the others, they met not on Sunday afternoon, 
but on Thursday evening. It may have been a com- 
promise with the boys' love of play. To break up the 
games of the long afternoon was too much of a sacri- 
fice to ask of youthful Yorkville, with its unlimited 
space for baseball, just coming into existence, for town- 
ball and rounders, just sinking into their honored 
graves. So Thursday in mid-week was chosen to 
supply the omitted devotions of Sunday. 

The Young Men's Sodality could not do much in 
aid of the finances of the parish, yet what they could 
do they did with a will. They were much in evidence 
at the picnics in Jones' Wood and at Bellevue Gardens, 
not so much as marshals or policemen or gate-keepers, 
that they left to their Fathers and Uncles, but as gen- 
eral utility men, for the ladies particularly. At the 
fairs held once or twice a year they kept watch in the 
school house at night over the treasures of the various 
tables, and in the morning they went to the Academy 
for their early cup of coffee prepared for them by the 
Sisters. Such guardianship was deemed necessary as 
the church itself was not immune from attacks of rob- 
bers. One of the early items of expense in the church 
accounts is a sum of six dollars paid for advertising for 
the apprehension of burglars who broke into St. Law- 
rence's. A few young men would have been a serious 
obstacle to burglary, when firearms were not in fashion 
in offense, and baseball bats were handy in defense. 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 321 

For six years the Sodality, as first organized, ran 
its course of religious and social union, the young men 
getting larger and older and the bars for admission 
probably getting lower, as years ran on. In October, 
1871, Father Gockeln deemed it advisable, on taking 
charge, to make a change. It seems strange that the 
need of change had not forced itself on the mind of 
Father Moylan during his term. The Sodality, while 
keeping a common Communion Sunday, was divided 
in the meetings. The boys, members of sixteen years 
and under, were to have their monthly meeting on the 
third Tuesday of the month, and those over sixteen 
were to assemble on Thursday of the same week. The 
young men could receive instruction suitable to their 
years and needs, and were not molested by their im- 
mature companions. Surely the concession was a 
natural one, and must have been one of profit too. 

In parish activities the Young Men at times aided 
the church by proceeds of entertainments which ap- 
pealed to them particularly, and have at all times 
preserved their share of the peculiar neighborly spirit 
of the parish. They were more sensitive to the char- 
acter of the director than the Young Ladies, more 
inclined to increase in numbers, or to diminish, accord- 
ing to the psychology of the Priest in charge. If he 
had preserved his sympathetic spirit to old age, and 
most of the Directors were old men. the Young Men 
would respond. If the Director had lost the resiliency 
of youth, and saw in life nothing but ''vanity of vani- 
ties," his hold on the young was sure to be slight : 
and the numbers were sure to diminish. A complaint 
is made now and again that the Young Men did not 



322 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

respond to the efforts for their welfare. The com- 
plaint was well founded at times, at others satisfactory 
results were effected. At the beginning of the present 
year Young Men and Married Men have been merged 
in the same body, and one cannot yet conjecture what 
the effect will be. 

From 1871 to 1889 the Boys' Sodality had its periods 
of prosperity and decline like every other human insti- 
tution. The members are unstable, hard to interest in 
vital principles which they cannot grasp, much less 
apply to their own lives, fond of amusement rather 
than improvement or restraint, and easily led to seek 
present pleasure rather than future good. In a word 
they are young, fickle, thoughtless and inexperienced; 
they are not old, sedate, sobered by experience. One 
who knows them, and sympathizes with them, and does 
not expect too much of them and has patience with 
their limitations, and hope in their good will, can do 
them much good. Such a man took hold of the Boys' 
Sodality in September, 1889, and of the Young Men, 
too. Immediately high hopes were entertained of 
permanent good, and the hopes began already to be 
realized, as we learn from notes of one of the Fathers. 
Unfortunately the able Director was sent elsewhere to 
carry on his good work and bring it to phenomenal 
success, while decline set in once more in St. Lawrence 
Boys' Sodality. Father Quin came back with enlarged 
experience, and began anew his efforts for the boys. 
He excluded the small mob by requiring a minimum 
of inches in height, and the unsuccessful candidate 
could only blame himself, not the Director, for falling 
short of the requirements. A modicum of religious 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 323 

instruction was conveyed in carefully prepared anec- 
dotes and explanations suited to the capacity of the 
boys, a little praying was tolerated for the sake of the 
stories and the recreation following them. Benediction 
was given and reverence in church was learned. 

Boys were kept out of mischief, learned order and 
organization and such reverence as they could absorb 
and unbounded admiration for the Director, the 
thought of whom was often a restraint against wrong- 
doing. But not always, as pleading notes from the 
Tombs sometimes summoned him to rescue some lamb 
who had come under suspicion of the law. 

This was not the Prima Primaria idea of a Sodality, 
yet no one who watched the workings of the Boys' 
Sodality could deny that much good was effected. To 
do all the good possible by such methods there was need 
of a gymnasium and recreation rooms, reading rooms, 
and a library. Unfortunately no such establishment 
exists in the parish. If we had such, our boys could 
meet every day or night when danger could be kept at 
a distance, and supervision exercised that would result 
in self-restraint, refinement and religious growth. 
Pending the establishment of such a parish centre, or 
such a centre for several parishes, our Boys' Sodality 
cast off its gymnastic features with its numbers, began 
to cultivate the supernatural element exclusively and 
settled down to a small orderly meeting of boys who 
needed no stimulus of excitement to practice the virtues 
of their years. But, oh, for a place where the uncon- 
ventional crowd, with its undeveloped virtues, could be 
trained like those who remain faithful to the ideal of 
a Boys' Sodality ! Here is a field for the zeal and the 



324 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

generosity of some big, rich, young old-man, a founder 
of a Young Catholic Association building. We need 
one, the city needs several. 

Up to the year 1888, married men had no Sodality 
of their own, but were supposed to form the backbone 
of the Bona Mors Association (or Sodality as it was 
called) ; but when Father Walker returned to St. Law- 
rence's in September, 1888, he resumed charge of his 
Temperance Society and instituted the Married Men's 
Sodality. It enabled him to keep in close contact with 
the members of the older society, and gave him an 
opportunity of addressing them more frequently. Our 
catalogue is silent about the Men's Sodality until it 
was taken in hand by Father Fulton in 1892, and con- 
tinued under him for two years, up to the time that 
he failed in health. He was certain to be more intel- 
ligible in this post than he was to the parish in general, 
whilst Superior, and to be just as solid in his instruc- 
tions as when Boston hung upon his lips a dozen years 
earlier. Another Director of St. Ignatius Sodality, as 
the Men's Sodality was called, whose talks were an edu- 
cation, was Father Healy. He continued to instruct 
and animate as long as his powers remained. He was 
succeeded after a short interval by Father P. H. Casey 
who remained in charge until he left for Philadelphia. 
The Sodality appreciated to the fullest measure his store 
of knowledge and his clear exposition, and seconded 
his efforts to make it a live institution. The age and 
conditions of the members exempted this body from 
the fluctuations experienced by the other Sodalities. 
Their momentum carried them on steadily in the course 
pointed out when each one became a member. Of 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 325 

course, all did not persevere, but places made vacant 
by death, removal or occasional infidelity were easily 
supplied by new recruits. The present attendance 
reaches about two hundred and fifty. 

The Holy Name Society is a bond of union between 
the Young Men's and Married Men's Sodalities, and 
a rallying cry that is heeded by some who do not 
belong to either body, by men and by boys. The 
Church Bulletin for November, 1912, p. 15, announces 
the inauguration as follows : "In the October number 
of the Church Bulletin the attention of the men of the 
parish was called to our intention of starting a Holy 
Name Society in our parish. The Society will be 
started on the first Sunday of November, and the 
second Sunday will be the great rallying day when our 
men will go to Communion under the banner of the 
Holy Name. 

"A Dominican Father will speak at all the Masses on 
the first Sunday, and will invite all of our men, old and 
young to meet him at Vespers on the same day for 
reception into' the Society. To omit other reasons why 
all our men should join the Holy Name Society, the 
mere fact that His Eminence Cardinal Farley desires 
it is a sufficient reason why our men should rally round 
the banner of the Holy Name." 

According to the announcement, Father McNicholas, 
O. P., came on Sunday, November 3rd, to establish 
the Society, and to enroll members. His appeal was 
answered by a goodly number, and by the beginning 
of the new year six hundred men could be mustered 
for the Men's Mass in the Upper Church. Others 
have been added since then, much to the satisfaction 



326 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

of the Fathers, and more to the advantage of the men 
themselves. The Society brings the men to the Sacra- 
ments, to the Physiscian of their souls, to Medicine 
that leads to eternal life and secures its possession. 
The membership has already mounted up to fourteen 
hundred, and our hope is to see a thousand at the altar 
railing on some second Sunday in the near future. A 
common breakfast, or a breakfast in common, gives a 
social aspect once a year to the organization. 

Devotion to the Sacred Heart dates back to the 
Mission given by Father Damen in 1871. One of the 
many benefits conferred on the parish during the Mis- 
sion of March 12-26, 1871, was the establishment of 
devotion to the Sacred Heart. A note in the register 
of names of members written in the neat hand of 
Father Moylan, runs as follows : "The Sodality of 
the Sacred Heart of Jesus was established in the 
Church of St. Lawrence, East Eighty-Fourth Street, 
New York, by Reverend A. Damen, S. J., the 25th of 
March, 1871, during the Mission preached by him. 
With this Sodality was connected the Apostleship of 
Prayer. The names inscribed in this register belong 
to both. W. Moylan, S. J., Pastor, March 25th, 1871." 

The first name on the list is that of Father Moylan 
himself, and is followed by 381 others on that same 
day, some by himself, but the greater number inscribed 
by a lady in a very legible hand. The total up to July 
31st, was 785. After the departure of Father Moylan 
the devotion does not seem to have been urged, as from 
that date up to the end of 1877, only 120 new names 
were added to the list. Neither Father Gockeln nor 
Father Achard seems to have been familiar with the 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 327 

devotion. But when Father Treanor took the reins 
of government in his hands, and reserved the League 
for himself, a new impetus was given, and members 
were enrolled each month after the meeting on the first 
Friday. In 1878, 157 joined the League. On the 
first Friday of October, 1879, Father Moylan took 
charge once more, to the increase of the list of asso- 
ciates. From this date until the 5th of July, 1899, 
every new name is inscribed by Father Moylan him- 
self. 1888 was the most successful year after the 
establishment of the League, including 505 new mem- 
bers. Following Father Moylan's second departure 
from the parish, the names are usually written by the 
Secretary, though both Father O'Connor and Father 
McCarthy, at times, did the enrolling themselves. The 
last entry in the first book of names reads : "There are 
inscribed in the book 8,560 Associates Holy League, 
October 1st, 1893." The members do not belong 
exclusively to St. Lawrence's parish, nor even to New 
York City. There are many names from Brooklyn, 
New Rochelle, Albany, Rochester and other places in 
the State, with not a few from Meriden and New 
Haven, Connecticut. Later additions will include resi- 
dents in New Mexico and even Germany. 

When Father Sestini, the founder of the Messenger 
of the Sacred Heart at Georgetown College in 1866, 
began to propagate the devotion of the Apostleship of 
Prayer, there did not exist any such elaborate organi- 
zation as we have at present. That owes its origin to 
his successor, and above all, to the late F. X. Brady, 
who, in charge of the devotion at the Gesu Church in 
Philadelphia, directed a centre of 30,000 members 



328 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

under about 1,200 Promoters. The number of these 
was so large that it became necessary for the distribu- 
tion of supplies, and other needs, to place the Pro- 
moters under the charge of Arch-Promoters. All the 
Promoters whose name began with the letter "A" 
gathered around a table marked "A" and so on through 
the alphabet. 

The organization under Promoters and, perhaps, the 
issue of a Diploma of aggregation in this parish dates 
from 1890, due to the zeal and activity of Miss Eleanor 
Beaty. the most tireless of workers in all parish activi- 
ties, and to Miss Kate Geraghty. They had seen the 
branch at work at St. Francis Xavier's, and got a similar 
one established here. The first reception of Promoters 
took place on May 22nd, 1890, under the direction of 
Father Jeremiah O'Connor. His successors, Fathers 
McCarthy and McKinnon, followed him with com- 
mendable zeal and the best results. During the too 
short incumbency of Father Fink, the organized adora- 
tion of the Blessed Sacrament was introduced. When- 
ever there was exposition, whether on first Fridays or 
at other times, bands of adorers for each hour were 
formed with two Promoters at their head. These had 
kneeling benches placed for them near the altar. This 
made the Promoters more conspicuous than most Pro- 
moters could endure, and the custom ceased. Father 
Fink gathered such a large number of men at the eve- 
ning services of the First Fridays that the Middle 
Aisle was reserved for them. 

Father James Conway's devotion and the liberality of 
the League were responsible for the erection of the 
Sacred Heart Altar, a beautiful monument testifying 




Sacred Heart Altar 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 329 

to the flourishing condition of the devotion in our 
church. His instructions have been printed and serve 
as a guide at the adoration on Holy Thursday night. 
His four years, 1899-1903, left a strong impress. 
Father Pardow, 1905-1907, labored to make the 
Xovenas a power for good, and attracted many asso- 
ciates; and Father Patrick Casey brought back the 
men who had begun to fall away. Once more the 
Middle Aisle was reserved for them. Father Richards 
was in charge from 1909 to 1913 and under him mem- 
bers increased to such proportions that Arch-Promoters 
became necessary to expedite the business. As might 
be expected, he favored spiritual reading to promote 
the interior life and pointed out the way by recom- 
mending suitable works. He was followed by Father 
Miller, to whose efforts are due the Altar of the Sacred 
Heart in the Lower Church. Father Millers quiet, 
unobtrusive ways, his earnest piety and spirit of self- 
sacrifice, were an inspiration to all who wished to learn. 
His term lasted for two years. From 1915, Father 
Brown has been in charge. The League now numbers 
about 7,000 Associates under about 400 Promoters, and 
the crowded church at the Holy Hour on Fridays is 
proof of the good being accomplished. The number 
of communicants at the Masses on First Fridays and 
of visitants during exposition is proof that true de- 
votion has taken root. 

Besides the Directors and Miss Beaty, who has been 
mentioned already, the organization is indebted for 
many years of devoted service to Miss Mary Marsh, 
Miss Margaret Nagle and the Misses Major. Their 
silent work has aided the Directors, and saved them 



330 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

from the necessity of attending to petty details which 
would interfere with more urgent duties. 

A fitting conclusion to the History of the devotion 
to the Sacred Heart is the statement that the parish 
was solemnly consecrated to It on June 7th, 1872. 

Since the above was written, news has reached us 
of the lamented death of Father Miller, a devoted 
worker for the interests of the Sodality and the League 
of the Sacred Heart. His friends will welcome this 
sketch of his short and active career. 

The Reverend Augustine Anthony Miller (Muller), 
Instructor of Tertians at the Novitiate of St. Andrew- 
on-Hudson, died at 11.30 Tuesday morning, February 
13th, 1917, after a short illness. The immediate cause 
of his death was edema of the lungs. 

Father Miller was born in Uznach, Switzerland, 
May 13, 1869. He was educated in the Jesuit board- 
ing school, Stella Matutina, Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, 
Austria, and entered the German province of the So- 
ciety of Jesus on October 1st, 1887. He made his 
philosophical studies in Exaeten, Holland, after which 
he came to the United States and taught the classics 
for five years in St. Ignatius College, Cleveland, Ohio. 
He returned to Valkenburg, Holland, in 1898, where 
he made his theological studies. After his ordination 
to the priesthood in 1901 and the completion of his 
fourth year of theology, he returned to this country 
and was Socius to the Master of Novices at the Novi- 
tiate in Brooklyn, Ohio, from 1902 to 1903. He then 
returned to St. Ignatius College, where he taught for 
two years more, making his solemn profession there 
on February 2nd, 1905. In July, 1905, Father Miller 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 331 

became Rector of Canisius College, Buffalo, N. Y., 
and filled that important position for seven years. His 
last work there was to erect the splendid new college 
building on Main Street, which was entirely due to his 
zeal and labors. On January 2nd, 1913, he was trans- 
ferred to St. Ignatius Church, New York City, where 
he became Minister in July. After two and a half 
years spent in New York, Father Miller was named 
Superior at St. Anne's Church, Buffalo, and in July, 
1916, he was appointed to the important work of 
Instructor of Tertians at St. Andrew-on-Hudson. He 
was buried in the cemetery of the Novitiate, February 
15th, 1917. 

The latest religious society established in the church 
is the St. John Berchmans' Sanctuary Society. St. 
John is one of the three Patrons of Youth, was a mem- 
ber of the Jesuit order and with his two fellow patrons, 
St. Aloysius and St. Stanislaus, has a shrine in our 
church. His love for the Sanctuary and his devoted- 
ness in assisting Priests at Mass have caused him in 
particular to be chosen the patron saint of Sanctuary 
Boys. Altar boys served long and faithfully in St. 
Lawrence and St. Ignatius' Church before a patron 
saint was chosen. They continued faithfully to serve 
here after the erection elsewhere of Sanctuary Societies 
under the invocation of St. John Berchmans. But it 
was only in 1915 that they were enrolled as members 
of a Sodality peculiar to those who serve at the altar, 
and were thus made capable of partaking of the spiritual 
favors bestowed on members officially received into the 
Sanctuary Society. Besides weekly meetings on Thurs- 
davs for instruction in their holv duties and for drill 



632 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

in proper deportment and movements in the Sanctuary, 
they receive Holy Communion in a body at the 7 o'clock 
Mass on the Second Sunday of the Month. 

The first reception into the Society took place on 
May 8th, 1915, the second on December 11th of the 
same year. In March, 1916, they had the advantage 
of a special retreat given by Father Byrnes, who else- 
where got most consoling results from his efforts in 
favor of the Sanctuary Boy. After the retreat the 
number of daily communicants has very perceptibly 
increased. On May 16th a third reception took place. 
The general effect of the Sodality has been so beneficial 
as to become apparent to all observers. The patient 
training of many Fathers, some Brothers and three 
Scholastics bore fruit in years gone by, but the erection 
of a Sodality for our Sanctuary Boys has crowned all 
efforts. 

Vocations. 

Though spiritual work cannot be measured ade- 
quately in this life, and will be revealed fully only on the 
day of universal reckoning, yet spiritual life, if at all 
active, will manifest itself sometimes exteriorly, and 
may become known to the world at large. Vocation 
to the priesthood or to the religious life is one recog- 
nized sign of religious activity, and it is of interest to 
see how our parish has stood in this respect. A list 
of vocations is appended as a supplement to the history 
of St. Lawrence and St. Ignatius' Church. There may 
have been many more whose names have not reached 
us. but these are vouched for. 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 



333 



I. VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD. 



(a J To the Society of Jesus — 

Rev. Raphael V. O'Connell, 

William F. Cunningham, 

Bernard Keaney, 

Joseph P. Carney, 

James A. Taaffe, 

William D. Keane, (d) 

Edward P. Spillane, 

Charles F. Bridges. 

William S. Singleton, (d) 

Joseph P. O'Reilly, 

James I. Moakley, 

Richard A. Fleming, 

Thomas I. Tully, 1 

Thomas Chetwood, 
Mr. William J. Holden, (d) 
Francis W. O'Hara, 
Martin J. O'Shaughnessy, 
John Gratten, 
Ignatius Cox, 
William Ruggeri, 
William B. O'Shaughnessy. 
Harold Mul queen, 
William Quilty. 

(b) Congregation of the Passion — 

Rev. Richard (Eugene) Fay, C. P. 

(c) Congregation of St. Paul — 

Rev. Joseph I. Malloy, C. S. P. 

1 Father Tully's family moved into our parish just before he entered the 
Society and so technically, he can claim to belong to us, though he was 
educated elsewhere. 

fd) Deceased. 



334 



FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 



(d) Salesian Fathers — 

Mr. William Ryan, 
" Stephen Keating, 
" James O'Hara. 

(e) Diocesan Clergy — 

Rev. Thomas V. Madden, 
Francis Barry, 
John T. Kelly, 
Louis Riccio, 
F. P. Dixon, 
Walter Slattery, 
Walter Gilmore, 
B. F. McGeary, 
John Toomey, 
Patrick Keany. 

(f) Brothers of the Christian Schools — 

Brother Arnold Francis (Molanphy), 



II. VOCATIONS TO SISTERHOODS. 



(a) Sisters of Charity — 

Sister Ann de Chantal (Haggerty), 
" M. Carmelita (Baker), (d) 
" Mary de Sales (Conran), 
" Agnes Loyola (Fitzgerald), 
" Margaret Alacoque (Kennedy), (d) 
" M. Juanita (Casey), 
" M. Augustina (Smith), 
" Maria Agatha (Elder), 

M. Bertille (Gerrity), 
" Ann Veronica (Conlon), (d) 

(d) Deceased. 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 335 

Sister M. Francina (Flanagan), (d) 

" M. Pauline (Gerrity), 

" M. Gonzalva (Coonan), 

" Marie Paula (Duffy), 

" M. Sienna (Quinn), 

" Mary Lawrence (Rooney), 

" Martha (Reilly), 

" M. Ulrica (Boyle), 

" Rose Felix (Dixon), 

" Francis (Ennis), 

" Margaret Alocoque (Plummer), 

" Magdalen (Monaghan), 

" Margaret Aloysia (Felton), 

" Alphonse Miriam (Christy), 

" Ignatius Maria (Harrington), 

Rita Maria (Stout), 

" Josita Rosaire (Sullivan), 

" Noella Miriam (McKenna), 

" Anita Rosaire (Meade), 

" Regina Berchmans (Sullivan), (d) 

" Ambrose Rosaire (McQuade), 

" Regina Marie (Clonan), 

" Ignatius Rosaire (Miller), (d) 

" Marie Magdalen (McKenna), 

" Rose Mary (Miller), 
" . Miriam Josephine (Phelan), 

" M. Rosalba (Slattery), 

" Corona Carmela (Driscoll), 

" Mary Berchmans (Reid), 

" Cecilia Mercedes (Ryan), 

" Rita Miriam (Ronan), 

(d) Deceased. 



336 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Sister Maria Monica (Powers), 
" Marie Jeanette (Malloy), 
( b) Sisters of the Good Shepherd — 

Sister Mary of St. Josephine (Dillon), 

" " the Divine Heart (Spillane), 

" " St. Pius (Falvey), 

" " Bl. John Eudes (Fitsimmons), 

"St. Rita (McGovern), 
" " the Rosary (Spillane), 
" St. Cecilia (Brennan), 
" " " Anastasia (O'Connor), 

" " Reparata (Cunningham), 
" " Stella (Duff), 
" " St. Joachim (Scanlan), 
" the Nativity (O'Rourke), 
" " " St. Francis Borgia (Chambers) 

" St. Gabriel (Trewer), 
" M St. Colette (Byrne), 

" St. Catherine (Ennis), 
" " St. Laura (Ryan), 
" " St. Germaine (Dooley), 
" " Paschal (O'Hare), 
" M St. John of the Cross (Cahill), 
" Marie Alacoque (Cahill), 
" Carmela (McGough), 
" of St. Remigius (O'Brien), 
" u u Tarsicius, (Andersen), 
(c) Sisters of Mercy — 

Sister M. Mercedes (Hitchman), 
" Annunciata (O'Reilly), 
" " Philomene (Hayes), 
" " Catherine (Sullivan), 



RELIGIOUS GROWTH 337 

Sister M. de Neri (McConologue), 
" " Cyril (Twomey), 

' Dorothea (Bengert), 
" " Loyola (Gilmartin). 

(d) Religious of the Sacred Heart — 

Madame M. Hammill, 
" C. Crowley, 

M. Crowley, 

Tully, 

M. Kelly, 

J. Geraty, 

T. Doherty, 
" J. McGuiness, 

N. McCall, 

A. Miller, 

R. Stapleton. 

(e) Religious of the Cenacle — 

Mother Smith, 
Sister Mary Rose (Hail), 
" Mary Frances (Hall). 

(f) Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament — 

Sister M. Benedicta (Dodge), 
" M. Paschal (Kelly). 

(g) Divine Compassion — , 

Sister M. Loyola (Cronin), 
" M. Concilio (Boyle), 
(h) Carmelite — 

Sister Magdalene (Finan). 
(i) Dominican Order — 

Perpetual Adoration : 

Mother Mary of the Holy Ghost (Hamill). 



338 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Perpetual Rosary : 

Sister Mary Lucy (O'Brien). 
III. Order: 

Sister Philip Neri (Ahern), 
" Margaretta (Mulligan), 
(k) Little Sisters of the Poor- 
Sister Mary Louise (Ruggeri), 
(1) Filles de Marie — 

Miss Geraghty (d) 
(m) Holy Cross — 

Sister Mary Angela (O'Callaghan). 
(n) Precious Blood — 

Sister Mary Concepta (McKenna). 
(o) Presentation — 

Sister Mary of St. Michael (Molanphy). 
(p) St. Joseph — 

Sister Joseph Wilfred (Murray), 
" Philothea (Ahearn). 
(q) Visitation — 

Sister Jane Frances (Leibell). 

(d) Deceased. 




Father Richards 



CHAPTER XXIV 
The Jubilee Celebration. 

The idea of commemorating the coming of the 
Jesuits to take charge of Yorkville on the fiftieth anni- 
versary of the event, long entertained by Father Hearn 
and often spoken of privately on former occasions, was 
first formulated officially in a meeting of some of the 
Fathers on February 15th, 1916. In a few days the 
fifty years of occupancy would be complete, and minds 
which could contrast the change between the village 
of 1866 and the thickly populated section of the city 
today were in favor of some celebration, particularly 
as there had been no commemoration of the first estab- 
lishment of a parish here, either after twenty-five or 
fifty years. The complete plant was in perfect running 
order after our labors for half a century, and a rest 
and enjoyment, such as the jubilee suggests, seemed 
a fitting expression of gratitude for favors received 
from God through a loyal people. 

But what would the people say? They were a 
quantity more or less constant (very constant for New 
York) while the clergy were variables; if the people 
desired the celebration, as they were attached to ihe 
soil and the best guardians of old traditions, then the 
jubilee should be held. First a few representative men 
were invited to the residence, and before them and the 
Fathers of the parish, Reverend Father Richards laid 
the subject for the debate, the propriety of making 



340 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

some acknowledgement, as a parish, of the graces 
bestowed on this Catholic community. No such ex- 
pression had been made before, would it seem fitting 
to make one now, fifty years after the coming of the 
Jesuits, when the parish at last was to do its full work 
through a perfect church, school, High School and 
Day Nursery? Those who were consulted were all 
favorably impressed, and judged that in a parish meet- 
ing the project would receive enthusiastic support. 
Before, however, laying the project before the parish, 
two meetings were held where proposed organization 
was discussed and the general character of the contem- 
plated celebration was outlined. 

The first public meeting took place in the School 
Hall, May 3rd, 1916. The persons present by general 
invitation, as likely to take a special interest in the 
Jubilee Celebration, numbered sixty-four. The subject 
was fairly well understood by them and cordially ap- 
proved. It remained to carry out the suggestions made 
and approved in the three private conferences. A 
Temporary Chairman with a Temporary Secretary was 
appointed for the purpose of the organization, Mr. 
Joseph H. Fargis, in the former capacity, and Mr. John 
V. Judge, in the latter. 

The first business transacted, after the hearing of 
the scope and aim of the celebration from the Reverend 
Rector, was the election of a General Committee, Mr. 
Nicholas F. Brady, President ; Mr. Louis Ehret, Treas- 
urer, and Mr. John V. Judge, Secretary. Mr. Charles 
A. Murray was chosen Chairman of the Executive 
Committee, a kind of clearing house for all the Special 
Committees. These were : The Reception Committee, 



THE JUBILEE CELEBRATION 341 

Joseph F. Fargis, Chairman; The Historical Commit- 
tee, Thomas McParlan, M. D., Chairman; The Press 
Committee, Stuart P. West, Chairman; The Finance 
Committee, Colonel Louis D. Conley, Chairman; The 
Committee on Speakers, William H. Corbitt, Chair- 
man; The Committee on Societies, John J. Collins, 
Chairman; The Committee on Schools, Hon. Joseph 
F. Mulqueen, Chairman; The Old Home Committee, 
Hon. Edward C. Sheeley, Chairman; The Committee 
on Decoration, John McLaughlin, Chairman. 

The plans were sufficiently matured to give a fair 
outline of the general character of the celebration, and 
those who were present could not fail to be impressed. 
The parish became aroused and sympathetic. The 
various Chairmen invited aids to cooperate with them, 
and where necessary or possible began operations at 
once. The Chairman of the Historical Committee, 
whose task was the widest, began to collect data and 
reminiscences and statistics wherever he could, and 
turned them into the little reservoir of facts for the 
History of the Parish. The others, though not idle, 
could proceed at a more leisurely pace with their plans. 
At the second meeting of the General Committee a 
larger number attended, showing increased interest as 
members began to take in the idea of the celebration. 
The same may be said of the two meetings that took 
place after the summer holidays. At the last meeting, 
November 16th, it was possible to lay before the gen- 
eral body a complete programme of the whole Cele- 
bration, Religious and Social ; to promise the execution 
of the plans for decorations, invitations, speakers. 
preachers, celebrants, and entertainment on Old Home 



342 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

Night. Some modifications of the original proposals 
had to take place, and the time of the celebration itself 
was postponed to the last week in November. The 
necessary change of time was a fortunate improvement, 
as were also some other departures from the first sug- 
gested plan. 

Mr. Nicholas F. Brady, who had generously under- 
taken to defray all the expenses connected with the 
Jubilee, set his men to work in good time to decorate 
the church, school, residence, Loyola and Regis High 
Schools with flags and bunting, the outlines marked 
with electric lights. The shields of the United States 
and of the Cardinal were traced in colored lights on 
the facade of the church. Good taste was the char- 
acteristic of the display; simplicity and dignity com- 
bined to usher in the coming festivities of the Jubilee. 
When the light was turned on for a time on Saturday, 
November 25th, the hundreds who came to the church 
for confession that evening were convinced that the 
morrow would witness an unusual festivity. 

Not only were the church and parish buildings 
decorated, but Catholics throughout the parish were 
invited to display the Papal colors and the American 
flag above and about their homes. To enable them to 
do so the Committee on Decorations procured a supply, 
and from the Parish House distributed them to all who 
wished to pay the cost, a nominal sum. 

All during the week from November 25th to De- 
cember 4th, the houses and apartments of Catholics 
displayed the national colors with the papal white and 
yellow alongside. 

A Solemn Pontifical High Mass opened the Jubilee at 



.1 

if 




Apostolic Delegate Bonzano 



THE JUBILEE CELEBRATION 343 

11 A. M. on Sunday, November 26th, His Excellency, 
the Apostolic Delegate, Most Rev. John Bonzano, D.D., 
being the celebrant. He, with all the ministers, vested in 
the Loyola School parlor, and preceded by about seventy 
Acolytes, fourteen Scholastics, many Priests in cassock 
and surplice, and Monsignori in their robes, and the 
Ministers and Deacons of Honor, and followed by His 
Eminence, John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New 
York, marched from the entrance of Loyola School on 
Eighty-Third Street around to Eighty-Fourth Street 
by Park Avenue. The sight was a dignified and im- 
posing one, and was witnessed by a large throng of 
Catholics who could not possibly find room in the 
church, and by a mass of Protestant spectators attracted 
by the unusual spectacle. The church was crowded, 
every place being occupied except for a few seats whose 
destined occupants were prevented at the last moment 
from coming to the festivity. The Master of Cere- 
monies was master of a complicated situation, with 
Cardinal, Pontifical Celebrant, Assistant Priests, Dea- 
cons of Honor and Ministers of the Mass, yet there 
was no more of a hitch than at a Low Mass. The 
sermon, too, by Very Reverend Raymond Meagher, 
Provincial of the Dominican Fathers, was warm, dig- 
nified and eloquent and worthy of the occasion. 

A like solemnity characterized the Solemn Vespers 
at which the Apostolic Delegate was celebrant and Rev. 
Richard Cartwright, C. S. P., the preacher. At the 
High Mass none were admitted without a ticket, the 
only possible way of securing seats for those who were 
entitled to them as pew-holders ; other vacant seats were 
sold at a nominal price to those who applied. There 



344 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

could be no cornering of seats, as tickets were sent by 
mail in each case, and the Committee saw to it that no 
undue number went to the same address. Even with 
this arrangement many were excluded who would wish 
to have been present and whom the clergy would long 
to see satisfied. 

Even if the number of seats were twice as large, it 
would have been impossible to satisfy all the applicants. 
However, this was true only of the opening Mass. 
The other services in the church were free to all, 
morning and evening. 

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, the 
hall was crowded to its utmost capacity. On the first 
night very cordial and flattering things were said about 
Jesuits, past and present, by the Apostolic Delegate 
and His Eminence, Cardinal Farley, himself a Jesuit 
alumnus. In the case of one of the lay speakers the 
praise and appreciation were so strong that Rev. Father 
Richards felt obliged to dilute it somewhat by disclaim- 
ing title to the glory attributed to the Society. No 
one, however, questioned the sincerity and good will 
of the speaker. On Tuesday, Old Home Night, the 
house was packed with the old, anxious to hear a 
rehearsal of the deeds done in their early days, and 
with the young, curious to hear at length what old 
Yorkville was fifty years ago. They were not dis- 
appointed in listening to Mr. Long. 

The other speakers, too, by their reminiscences, their 
appreciation and praise of the men of the past, lay and 
clerical, called for warm plaudits from the audience. 
The whole celebration was characterized by dignity 
and solemnity, by deep appreciation of the favors God 



THE JUBILEE CELEBRATION 345 

has poured out on the parish of St. Lawrence and St. 
Ignatius Loyola in the past fifty years. The many 
complimentary expressions used by several of the 
speakers about the activities of the late Pastor, Father 
Hearn, elicited from him a response expressive of his 
appreciation and thanks for the cordial cooperation he 
had received in his term of seven years. 

The following- full programme of the Jubilee exer- 
cises will serve as an agreeable reminder of a solemn 
occasion : 

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 26th 

Pontifical High Mass at 11 A. M. 

Presiding His Eminence John Cardinal Farley 

Archbishop of New York. 

Assistant Priest Rt. Rev. Mgr. Joseph F. Mooney, P.A., V.G. 

Deacons of Honor 

Rt. Rev. Mgr. Francis H. Wall 
Rt Rev. Mgr. John Edwards, V.G. 

Celebrant His Excellency, John Bonzano 

Apostolic Delegate 

Assistant Priest Rev. Thomas F. White, S.J. 

Deacons of Honor 

Rev. David W. Hearn, S.J. 
Rev. Francis T. McCarthy, S.J. 

Deacon Rev. John F. Brady, D.D. 

Sub-Deacon Rev. James M. Kilroy, S.J. 

Master of Ceremonies Very Rev. Thos. G. Carroll, D.D. 

Preacher Very Rev. Raymond Meagher, O.P. 

Solemn Vespers at 8 P. M. 

Celebrant His Excellency, John Bonzano 

Apostolic Delegate. 

Assistant Priest Rev. Daniel J. Quinn, S.J. 

Deacon Rev. William F. Cunningham, S.J. 

Sub-Deacon Rev. James L. Moakley, S.J. 

Preacher Rev. Richard S. Cartwright, C.S.P. 



346 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27th, 
Solemn High Mass at 9 A. M. 

For Deceased Priests and People of the Parish. 

Celebrant Rev. David W. Hearn, S.J. 

Deacon Rev. Augustine A. Miller, S'J. 

Sub-Deacon Rev. Frederick Lupi, SJ. 

Preacher Rev. Francis T. McCarthy, S.J. 

Reception at 8.30 P. M. 

Salutation — "Ecce Sacerdos Magnus" — Choir Elgar 

Opening Address and Introduction 

By the Chairman of the Meeting, Mr. Nicholas F. Brady 

Hymn of Welcome — Choir. 

Address Hon. Morgan J. O'Brien 

Ave Maria — Choir 

Address Hon. W. Bourke Cockran 

Polonaise — "Militaire" Chopin 

Address Rev. J. Havens Richards, S.J. 

March — "Pomp and Circumstance" Elgar 

Address His Excellency Most Rev. John Bonzano, D.D., 

(Apostolic Delegate) 

Selection Wagner 

Address His Eminence, John Cardinal Farley, 

(Archbishop of New York) 

American Fantasie Herbert 

Finale — "The Star Spangled Banner" 

Mr. Chart.es A. Hauschel, Musical Director 



THE JUBILEE CELEBRATION 347 

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 

High Mass at 9 A. M. 

For Living Parishioners — Past and Present 
Celebrant Rev. Edward P. Spillane, SJ. 

Old Home Reception at 8.30 P. M. 

To Former and Present Parishioners 

Part I 
Overture — "Light Cavalry" Von Suppe 

Hon. Edward C. Sheehy, Presiding. 

Address of Welcome Rev. Geo. E. Quin, S.J. 

Selection — "Bohemian Girl" Balfe 

Address Edward J. McGuire 

Trio — "Hymn to St. Cecilia" Gounod 

Piano, Mrs. Bruno Oscar Klein; Harp, Mrs. Karl Klein; 
Violin, Karl Klein. 

Address Hon. Jeremiah T. Mahoney 

Selections — (a) "Humoresque" Dvorak 

(b) "Spring Song" Mendelssohn 

Intermission 

Medley of Irish Melodies — "Donnybrook" White 

Transcriptions — (a) "For all Eternity" Mascheroni 

(b) "Yester Thoughts" Herbert 

Overture — "Martha" Flotow 

Trio — "Ave Maria" Lorensi 

Piano, Mrs. Bruno Oscar Klein; Harp, Mrs. Karl Klein; 
Violin, Karl Klein. 

Address Edward Long 

Excerpt — "Babes in Toyland" Herbert 

Address Frank P. Treanor 

American Fantasie Herbert 

Finale — "Star Spangled Banner" 



348 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28th, 

Entertainment by the Children of the Parish School, 

In the School Hall, 3 P. M. 

Programme 

Greeting Juniors 

Address Hon. Joseph F. Mulqueen 

The Alphabet's Meeting Physical Culture Seniors 

Little Ones Ring Out Ye Bells Seniors 

The Oxen Dance Juniors The Golden Scarf Seniors 

Golden Bells Juniors 

The Golden Day 

Operetta in Three Acts 

Characters 

Father Time Curfew Cizella R. Olah 

Elizabeth M. McHugh Evening Star . Gladys H. Aken 
Vesper ... Veronica J. O'Brien West Wind ... Grace Cavanagh 
Twilight. . .Mabel E. Sullivan 

Gaelic Dance Ena M. Casey 

Solo — "Memories of Mother" Agnes Sheldon 

National Echoes Seniors 

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29th, 
Entertainment at the Day Nursery by the Children 

To Invited Guests 
at 2 P. M. 
Welcome Song Morning Circle 

School Children Intermediate Class 

1. March — Morning Circle — Games 

2. Telephone Song — Solo Irene Renica 

If I were a Little Frog. .Chorus Grandfather's Clock . . .Chorus 

3. "A Little Pilgrim's Progress" 
Cast — (in order of appearance) 

Town Crier John Farrell Joy Hildegarde Toring 

Dame Decision Falsepride Cecilia Kenney 

Wiltruda Toring Selfishness 
A Little Pilgrim Rose-Marie Wortche 

William Renica Boastfulness. . . .Cath. Enright 

Steadfast. Elizabeth McDonald Faint-o-heart Clara Lopez 

Knowledge .Catherine Sullivan Honesty Francis Brown 

Courage Christian Kahrs Anger Valentine Kirch 

4. The Star Spangled Banner Chorus 

Benediction 



THE JUBILEE CELEBRATION 349 

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29th, 
High Mass at 9 A. M. 

Foe the Ladies' Sodalities and Societies 
Celebrant Rev. Martin J. Scott, S.J. 

Promenade Concert at 8.30 P. M. 

Reunion of all the Societies and Sodalities, both of 
Men and Women 

Programme 
Presiding Officer, Mr. John J. Collins, Prefect Men's Sod. 

Grand March — "Aida" — (Verdi) Orchestra 

Address Miss Agnes C. Ruggeri 

"The Women's Societies of Our Church" 
Soprano Solo — "Rosary" — (Nevin) . . . .Miss Irene H. Greenthal 

Address Mr. Joseph H. Fargis 

"The Men's Societies of Our Church" 

Baritone Solo Mr. William Gibney 

Address Rev. Edward F. Garesche, S.J. 

Editor "The Queen's Work" 
Chorus — Jubilee Song of Praise 

(Eaton Fanning) — St. Cecilia's Choir 
Overture — "Merry Wives of Windsor" — (Nicelai) . . . .Orchestra 
Mr. Charles A. Hauschel, Musical Director. 
Miss Bertha A. Coulter, Director St. Cecilia Choir 

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30th, 

Thanksgiving Day 
High Mass at 9 A. M. 

For the Men's Sodalities and Societies 
Celebrant Rev. Joseph P. O'Reilly, S.J. 



350 FIFTY YEARS IN YORKVILLE 

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1st, 

High Mass at 9 A. M. 

For the League of the Sacred Heart 

Celebrant Rev. John F. X. O'Conor, S.J. 

Special League Devotions at 8 P. M. 

Preacher Rev. Albert G. Brown, S.J. 

Solemn Benediction — Rev. Albert G. Brown, S.J., Celebrant 
Rev. Daniel Quinn, S.J., Deacon 
Rev. Wm. F. McHale, S.J., Sub-deacon 

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2nd, 

High Mass at 9 A. M. for the Children 

Celebrant Rev. J. Havens Richards, S.J. 

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3rd, 

Solemn High Mass of Thanksgiving at 11 A. M. 

Celebrant Rev. B. F. McGeary 

Deacon Rev. Francis A. Barry 

Sub-Deacon Rev. Walter F. Gilmore 

Preacher. .. .Rev. J. Havens Richards, S.J. 

Vespers at 8 P. M. 

Celebrant Rev. Frederick M. Lupi, S.J. 

Preacher Rev. Daniel J. Quinn, S.J. 



APPENDIX 



Jesuit Staff, 1866-1916 



March 1866 
August 1866-67 
1867-68 
1868-69 
1869-70 
1870-71 
1871-72 

1872-73 

1873-74 

1874-75 

1875-76 

1876-77 
1877-78 
1878-79 

1879-80 

Nov. 1 1880-81 

August 1881-82 

1882-83 
1883-84 
1884-85 
1885-86 
1886-87 

1887-88 

1888-89 



Fathers Beaudevin, Ouellet, Petitdemange. 
" Marechal, Petitdemange, Achard. 
" McQuaid, Marechal, Achard. 
" Glackmeyer, Marechal, Achard. 

Moylan, Glackmeyer, Marechal, Holzer. 
" Moylan, Gockeln, Thebaud, Holzer. 
Gockeln, Archambault, Durthaller, 
Holzer. 
" Gockeln, Archambault, Durthaller, 
Dalabays, John McDonald. 
Gockeln, Archambault, Durthaller, 
Achard, John McDonald. 
" Achard, Walker, Archambault, John 
McDonald. 
Achard, Walker, Archambault, John 

McDonald. 
Achard, Walker, John McDonald, Reid. 
" Treanor, Walker, Petitdemange, Reid. 
" Treanor, Walker, Petitdemange, Reid, 

Allan McDonell. 
" Treanor, Walker, Petitdemange, Moy- 
lan, Allan McDonell. 
Fulton, Walker, Petitdemange, Moy- 
lan, Finnegan. 
Merrick, Walker, Petitdemange, Moy- 
lan. 
Merrick, Petitdemange, Moylan, Toner. 
Merrick, Petitdemange, Moylan, Toner. 
Merrick, Petitdemange, Moylan, Toner. 
" Merrick, Petitdemange, Moylan, Toner. 
" Merrick, Petitdemange, Moylan, Toner, 

Walsh. 
" Merrick, Petitdemange, Moylan, Mc- 

Tammany, Fink. 
" O'Connor, Moylan, Walker, Nash, 
Gleason, Massi. 



352 



APPENDIX 



August 1889-90 Fathers O'Connor, Walker, Nash, Quin, 

Gleason, Massi. 
1890-91 " O'Connor, Walker, Quin, Nash, Russo, 

Massi. 
1891-92 " McCarthy, Petitdemange, Walker, 

Dealy, Massi, Reid. 
1892-93 " McCarthy, Petitdemange, Walker, 

Cardella, Lynch, Massi. 
1893-94 " McKinnon, Petitdemange, Massi, 

Prendergast, Noonan, Fulton. 
1894-95 " McKinnon, Petitdemange, Massi, 

Prendergast, Desribes, Healy, Fulton. 
1895-96 " McKinnon, Merrick, Prendergast, 

Desribes, Healy, Massi, McCluskey. 
McKinnon, 



1896-97 



1897-98 



1899-1900 



1900-01 



1901-02 



1903-04 



1 904-03 



1906-07 



Merrick, Prendergast, 

Desribes, Healy, Massi, McCluskey. 
McKinnon, Merrick, Prendergast, 

Desribes, Healy, Massi, Conway. 
McKinnon, Merrick, Desribes, Healy, 

Massi, Fink, Conway. 
McKinnon, Scanlon, Merrick, Desribes, 

Healy, Massi, Conway. 
McKinnon, Scanlon, Merrick, Desribes, 

Ennis, Healy, Massi, Conway, Quin. 
McKinnon, Ennis, Merrick, Desribes, 

Healy, Massi, Conway, Quin, Par- 

dow. 
McKinnon, Ennis, Merrick, Healy, 

Massi, Quin, Pardow, Brie, Ray- 
mond, Scott. 
McKinnon, Scott, Merrick, Quin, 

Healy, Semple, Brie, Fagan, 

McLoughlin. 
McKinnon, Scott, Merrick, Quin, 

Healy, Gunn, Semple, Fagan, Jere. 

Prendergast. 
McKinnon, Scott, Merrick, Quin, 

Healy, Gunn, Semple, Fagan, Fargis, 

Massi. 
McKinnon, Scott, Quin, Semple, Massi, 

Gunn, Fargis, O' Gorman, Casey, 

O'Conor. 



APPENDIX 



353 



August 1907-08 Fathers Pardow, Scott, Quin, Semple, Massi, 
Gunn, O'Gorman, Gannon, O'Conor, 
Casey. 

Pardow, Dooley, Scott, Quin, Semple, 
Massi, Casey, O'Gorman. 

Hearn, Crowley, Scott, Quin, Semple, 
Massi, Casey, O'Gorman, Richards, 
Finnegan. 

Hearn, Crowley, Scott, Quin, Semple, 
Richards, Scully, O'Gorman, Cole- 
man, Casey. 

Hearn, Singleton, Fox, Quin. O'Gor- 
man, Coleman, Scully, Casey, 
Richards, Scott, McCarthy. 

Hearn, Cryan, Fox, Quin, O'Gorman, 
Scott, Casey, Lynch, Coleman, 
Greene, Richards. 

Hearn, Miller, Fox, Quin, O'Gorman, 
Scott, Coleman, O'Conor, Gannon, 
Greene, Casey. 

Hearn, Miller, Fox, Quin, O'Gorman, 
Scott, Dooley, Powers, Kilroy, 
Smith, (J.), Sullivan, Hargadon. 

Richards, Smith, (M.), Fox, Quin, 
O'Gorman, Dooley, Powers, Kilroy, 
Quinn, Leonard, Reilly, Brown, Con- 
don. 

Richards, Smith, Fox, Quin, O'Gorman, 
Dooley, Powers, Kilroy, Quinn, 
Reilly, Brown, Condon, Lupi. 



1908-09 



1909-10 



1910-11 



1912-13 



1913-14 



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